Liberal Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has embarrassed himself by agreeing to the appointment of a Supreme Court judge, and then announcing that he would “revoke” his approval—an act that constitutional law experts say goes against the law.
Two weeks ago, Tusk countersigned, i.e., approved, a decision by the country’s president Andrzej Duda—an ally of the opposition conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party—to appoint a judge as chair of an assembly that would choose the new head of the Supreme Court’s civil chamber.
Tusk consented to this decision despite the fact that the judge in question, Krzysztof Andrzej Wesołowski, was appointed to the Supreme Court following the judicial reforms of the previous conservative government. Judges appointed during the PiS-era have been deemed illegitimate by the currently governing leftist-liberal parties.
The prime minister realised that he had made a “mistake” after a complaint by two of the “old” judges in the Supreme Court’s civil chamber who refused to recognise the legitimacy of Wesołowski. Tusk then announced that he is “revoking” his countersignature.
The prime minister explained that he signs “hundreds of documents”, sometimes “dozens a day,” and the official responsible for preparing the signing did not notice the “political nature” of the document in question.
Justice Minister Adam Bodnar said “it is possible to make a self-correction of a decision made earlier,” but law experts have warned that such a move goes against the law.
“A countersignature cannot be repealed. A legal act can be repealed, but not a signature,” said professor of law Ryszard Piotrowski, adding that the prime minister cannot make declarations on X/Twitter in state matters, as Donald Tusk has done.
Marek Chmaj, another constitutional scholar, said there are no legal provisions allowing the withdrawal of such a countersignature and that introducing them would risk “causing chaos.”
Jacek Zaleśny of the University of Warsaw said the decision to appoint the judge was a “legally binding act” so if the prime minister “later changed his mind, it has no [legal] significance.”
The Supreme Court’s spokesman, Aleksander Stępkowski, another judge appointed in the PiS-era, said that regardless of the prime minister’s decision to “revoke” the countersignature, the assembly of Civil Chamber judges would meet on Tuesday as planned to begin the process of choosing a new head of the civil chamber.
PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński said Tusk’s announcement is “yet further evidence of [the government] breaking the law.”
As we recently reported, the conservative party is organising a protest in front of the Justice Ministry on September 14th. Jarosław Kaczyński described it as a “protest against the violation of the law,” and “against the attack on Polish patriotism.”
The demonstration is a response to a raid by the police on the homes and offices of the organisers of the patriotic Independence March, a rally closely aligned with the Law and Justice party.
PiS has made the public aware of a series of blatant law violations committed by Donald Tusk and his allies since they came to power last December. Many of these violations have targeted PiS itself: the Tusk cabinet has arrested PiS lawmakers, ordered dawn raids against former ministers, removed PiS-nominated officials from courts and public offices, and even arrested a priest on corruption charges.
While the conservative government’s judicial reforms were lambasted by EU officials, and Poland had billions of euros of EU funds withheld as punishment, the European Commission has rewarded Tusk despite the political witch hunt against his opponents.
