Polish Constitutional Tribunal crisis (2015 – ongoing)

The terms of three constitutional court judges were due to end after the 25 October election but before the new (eighth) Sejm was seated on 12 November 2015.

[5][6] As of 20 December 2017[update], the crisis had, according to the European Commission, extended to include "13 laws affecting the entire structure of the justice system in Poland".

[5] These changes to the court system precipitated a wider rule-of-law crisis, causing disagreement with the EU and including rollbacks to abortion in Poland.

The 2023 Polish Parliamentary Election, saw Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO) oust PiS from government and come back to power with the help of its coalition partners, starting a reversal of the crisis and conflict with the EU, with the newly found majority in the Sejm a resolution confirming the illegal status of some Constitutional Tribunal justices, and the fact that the President of the Constitutional Tribunal was never properly appointed, was pushed through.

[7] This move was met with outcry and accusations of unconstitutionality by the largest opposition party Law and Justice The European Commission cheered the new government's work, unlocking some funds from the Recovery Package that were blocked because of the old government's attack on the rule of law and suggested that the Article 7 procedure against Poland could be lifted one day.

Judges of the Constitutional Tribunal are nominated by the Lower House, meaning that the partisan influence of the judicial branch was also in play.

[16] However, the new President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, refused to swear in these judges[17] stating that they had been chosen "in contravention of democratic principles".

[18] On 25 October, the Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) party won an unprecedented absolute majority of seats in the Polish parliamentary election.

[22][23][24][25] PiS delegates argued that the previous appointments made by PO contradicted existing law and the Polish constitution.

[42][43] On 2 December 2015, Jacek Kucharczyk, the director of the Institute of Public Affairs, Poland in Warsaw, was quoted as saying that the constitutional court "was the one branch of government that they (PiS) theoretically couldn't touch and which curbed its power 10 years ago".

[37] Lech Wałęsa, former President of Poland and leader of the Solidarity movement in the 1980s, stated that the current situation might lead to a civil war and that the way in which PiS was proceeding did not amount to an "open and democratic" reform process.

"This government acts against Poland, against our achievements, freedom, democracy, not to mention the fact that it ridicules us in the world...I'm ashamed to travel abroad.

Miller accused the chief judge of the Constitutional Court Andrzej Rzepliński of acting like a "politician of Civic Platform".

[46] In an open letter published on 25 April 2016, the former Presidents of Poland, Lech Wałęsa, Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Bronisław Komorowski, called on the Polish public to defend democracy, and warned that "Law and Justice plans to continue their actions, which destroy the constitutional order, paralyze the proceedings of the Constitutional Tribunal and the entire judicial system.

In response PiS spokeswoman Beata Mazurek called the Supreme Court's statement the result of "a meeting of a team of cronies who are defending the status quo of the previous governing camp.

[citation needed] On 15 December 2015, Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, described the political situation in Poland as dramatic, with the latest actions of the Polish government having "characteristics of a coup".

[49] On 10 January 2016, Schulz was quoted as describing the situation in Poland as a "Putinisation" of European politics; and he was backed by Viviane Reding, who complained about attacks on the public and private media in line with "the Putin-Orbán-Kaczynski-Logic".

"[19] Anne Brasseur, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, called on Polish politicians "not to enact, precipitously, legislation relating to the Constitutional Tribunal which may seriously undermine the rule of law.

[52][53] Iverna McGowan, director of Amnesty International's European Institutes office in Brussels, commented: "The willingness of the commission to use the rule-of-law framework is a positive step towards a more serious approach by the EU to speak out and hold its own member states to account on their human rights records.

[55] On 11 March 2016, the Council of Europe's Venice Commission, who had been asked for an opinion by the Polish government in December 2015, assessed the amendments as crippling the Court's effectiveness and undermining democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

[62] On 19 January 2016, Petr Mach, Member of the European Parliament for Czech Republic, put on a badge saying "I am a Pole"[63][64][65][66][67] to show his support for law reforms in Poland.

[citation needed] On 13 September 2018, Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Linas Antanas Linkevičius has re-confirmed Lithuania's stand: "We will oppose the sanctions against Poland.

[70] On 9 January, Volker Kauder and Herbert Reul, both leading members of the large German CDU party, called for economic sanctions on Poland.

[77] In a letter addressed to Beata Szydło, US Senators John McCain, Ben Cardin and Richard J. Durbin protested against the amendments which would "threaten the independence of state media and the country's highest court and undermine Poland's role as a democratic model for other countries in the region still going through difficult transitions" and could "serve to diminish democratic norms, including the rule of law and independence of the judiciary".

[78][79] On 13 September 2017, Nigel Farage, British populist nationalist politician, openly attacked the European Commission in the EU parliament by saying: "Indeed, the way you are treating Poland and Hungary already must remind them of living under the Soviet Communists with your attempts to tell them how they should run their own countries.

"[80][81][82][83] On 28 February 2018, British politician Nigel Farage weighed in again on the issue: "I am always hearing about human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and yet in 2011, when journalists in Poland were being apprehended, held and sacked for being critical of the Government, what did the Commission do?

(...) here you are, Mr Timmermans – just because they tried to clear out the Communist old guard and modernise their system – on the verge of invoking Article 7 and taking away their democratic rights within the Union.

Prime Minister Beata Szydło vowed not to bow to German pressure, saying "these attacks are intended to weaken us, trying to show us that we should agree to everything just like our predecessors did".

[87] Bishop Wiesław Mering called Schulz's comments a "lost chance to stay quiet" (referring to infamous speech by French President Jacques Chirac telling Poland it "lost the chance to stay quiet" when expressing support for war against Iraq in 2003), "I know my country more than you do, I have lived in my homeland for 70 years, I can assure you that elections of the president and new government, are not evidence of a lack of democracy.

[89][90] On 9 January 2016, Polish Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro reacted to the proposal by German politician Günther Oettinger to sanction Poland in a letter criticising Oettinger for interfering in Polish internal affairs, while at the same time tolerating censorship over mass sexual attacks in Germany committed on New Year's Eve.