WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland’s president said on Wednesday he would refuse to nominate or promote judges who question the status of colleagues appointed under a contested system introduced by the previous government, potentially complicating efforts to reform the judiciary.
Since taking office, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European coalition has clashed first with President Andrzej Duda and now with President Karol Nawrocki over bills to roll back judicial reforms implemented by the previous, nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government that critics say weakened judicial independence.
“For the next five years judges who question the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Poland cannot count on either promotion, if it depends on the President, or judicial nomination,” Nawrocki said on Wednesday.
He said that on Wednesday he was refusing to nominate 46 judges. The president has the power to nominate and promote judges on the recommendation of the National Council of the Judiciary, or KRS.
Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek said that he was waiting to see the list of nominations refused by Nawrocki but that the head of state may be attempting to wield powers not granted to him by the constitution.
Nawrocki, who has previously expressed his opposition to questioning the status of judges appointed after PiS’s reforms, criticised judges for questioning each other’s status instead of focusing on rulings, citing cases where serious offenders avoided final convictions.
“Judges should not debate whether their colleagues are ‘neo’ or ‘paleo’ judges but issue verdicts in line with the constitution and Polish law,” he said.
The labels reflect a deep divide in Poland’s courts, as “neo judges” refers to those appointed after a 2018 reform that changed the composition of the KRS, while “paleo” describes judges who oppose the changes and remain on the other side of the conflict.
Government spokesperson Adam Szlapka told a press conference that judges had the right to question the status of other judges.
“Judging by what the president presented in his statement, this is a pretext for questioning the independence of the courts and the impartiality of judges,” he said.
Last month Poland’s justice ministry outlined plans to address the status of about 2,500 judges appointed by a body deemed illegitimate under judicial reforms introduced by the former government, as well as the validity of their rulings.
(Reporting by Barbara Erling, Pawel Florkiewicz, Editing by Alan Charlish and Hugh Lawson)
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