EU Commission backs Poland government over constitutional court crisis

BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Commission reaffirmed the Polish parliament's right to appoint judges to the country's top court on Nov. 1, a clear alignment with the center-right government of Donald Tusk.

Tusk's government is fighting to bring the country's legal system back to EU standards, after the previous Law and Justice Party (PiS) government put the judiciary under its political control, causing the EU to initiate a legal procedure against Warsaw in 2017.

"The appointment of eight new members of the Constitutional Tribunal lies within the constitutional power of the Sejm (Poland's parliament)," a Commission spokesperson told the Kyiv Independent.

The spokesperson also mentioned that the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights "issued interim measures obliging the competent Polish authorities to refrain from hindering the taking up and exercise of judicial duties by judges appointed by the Sejm."

Democratic backsliding by Poland under PiS and Hungary under its previous Prime Minister Viktor Orban led the EU to introducing annual rule-of-law reviews across the bloc, and to it demanding far more safeguards from countries wishing to join the EU, such as Ukraine.

Poland's President Karol Nawrocki, who also hails from PiS, refused to hear the newly appointed judges swear their oaths, in an attempt to turn what is usually a procedural step into a permanent block on the appointees being able to begin work.

The stand-off came to a head on Oct. 30 when the most senior of the new appointees took charge of the Constitutional Tribunal.

That move was immediately followed by a stand-off between PiS politicians and supporters, parties further to their right, and the police.

Jarosław Kaczynski, the PiS leader who masterminded the politicization of the Constitutional Tribunal, accused Tusk's government of turning Poland into a police state and called for continued protests.

"From today, Poland is becoming a police state, and from there it's a straight path to authoritarianism, and then to totalitarianism," Kaczynski wrote on X.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski explained the situation from the government's perspective via social media on Oct. 31.

"Our populist opposition is unfortunately refusing to accept its loss of control over the Tribunal," Sikorski wrote.

"The democratically elected government will continue to uphold the constitution," Sikorski said.