2024-09-09 21:56 update: 2024-09-09, 21:58
Photo PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has retracted his endorsement of the president's nomination of a judge, who was allegedly appointed in an improper manner, to serve as the chairman of the Assembly of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court (SN).
At the end of August, Tusk endorsed President Andrzej Duda's directive to appoint Krzysztof Wesolowski as the chairman of the Assembly of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court, a position that entails the responsibility of electing a new president for the chamber.
This provoked an outcry in judicial circles, as well as among the governing coalition members, as Wesolowski was appointed to the Supreme Court by the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) after, they claim, it had been reformed and politicised by the former Law and Justice (PiS) government.
"Based on the complaint of the judges of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court, I have decided to revoke my countersignature," Tusk wrote on the X portal on Monday.
On Sunday, the Oko.press online news service reported that two judges of the Civil Chamber had challenged Tusk's countersignature to the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw.
Aleksander Stepkowski, the SN spokesperson, told PAP on Monday evening that the electoral assembly of the Civil Chamber will take place on September 10, as scheduled, "regardless of the prime minister's unprecedented attack on the independence of the SN and his attempt to block the work of its bodies.
"The countersignature cannot be revoked, stripped off the decision," he said. "This order has already produced a legal effect, and Judge Wesolowski will act upon it."
Adam Bodnar, the justice minister, told the private broadcaster TVN24 that Tusk "absolutely had a legal basis" for such a decision in this matter.
According to him, "If the assembly of the chamber takes place, without the countersignature of the prime minister, it will be affected by a legal defect, and it will be hardly possible to say that the elected person will be the legally elected president of the Civil Chamber." (PAP)
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