Poland’s Constitutional Court has ruled that a bill was passed unconstitutionally because two politicians, who had lost their parliamentary seats due to criminal convictions, were excluded from the parliamentary process. A decision that opens the door to the annulment of several laws while the composition of the Constitutional Court is itself being challenged.
On June 19, Poland’s Constitutional Court ruled that a bill passed without the participation of Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wąsik–two parliamentarians stripped of their seats following prison terms due to an abuse of power–was unconstitutional.
The politicians in question, members of the national-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), argue that they were illegitimately excluded. The Constitutional Court, which has now endorsed this view, is reportedly preparing to issue similar rulings on all bills passed without the participation of these two men, notably including the Polish budget law.
The Court ruled that the bill in question — relating to research and higher education — was invalid due to an “improper formation of the parliament, which passed the law under review.”
“The unconstitutionality of the law under review is due to the fact that two deputies, as a result of the arbitrary actions of the president of parliament, were not allowed to participate in the proceedings,” the Constitutional Court stated in a press release after the ruling was published, “The illegal actions of the President of Parliament had the effect of undermining the will of a particular group of voters who considered that Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wąsik should represent the nation.”
In these circumstances, the Court ruled that the bill under consideration was incompatible with Article 7 of the Constitution, which requires the authorities to act on the basis and within the limits of the law, with Article 104, which states that deputies are representatives of the nation, and with Article 96, which stipulates that parliament is made up of 460 deputies.
“Nobody cares about the decision”
The verdict was delivered unanimously by a panel of five judges, two of whom — Krystyna Pawłowicz and Stanisław Piotrowicz — are former PiS MPs who served alongside Kamiński and Wąsik in parliament. Another was court president Julia Przyłębska, who is a close personal associate of PiS president Jarosław Kaczyński.
The current ruling coalition has argued in the past that it would ignore any decisions adopted with the participation of Pawłowicz and Piotrowicz, who find themselves at the heart of a conflict of interest as former PiS MPs.
Reacting to the verdict in an interview with Polsat News, Piotr Zgorzelski, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, declared that “nobody cares about the decision of the Constitutional Court, which has lost its impartiality” and “acted for many years on political orders.”
In this month’s European elections, Kamiński and Wąsik stood as PiS candidates for the European Parliament and were both elected.
Shortly after the two MPs were arrested at the presidential palace in Warsaw in January, Polish President Andrzej Duda began referring all bills passed by parliament to the Constitutional Court due to his “doubts” about their legal passage, given the exclusion of PiS politicians.
Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik were sentenced to two years in prison for abuse of power while running an anti-corruption office in 2007. The two politicians were forced to start serving their prison sentences in January, before being released shortly afterward when Mr. Duda pardoned them.
“Healing” the Constitutional Court
Last March, the Polish government announced a series of measures aimed at “healing” the country’s Constitutional Court after eight years of rule by the national-conservative Law and Justice Party, whose actions have rendered the body “flawed.”
The proposals include the declaration of illegitimacy of three judges chosen by PiS, as well as the Court’s president. These measures are intended to remedy a situation in which the Constitutional Court is widely considered to be under the influence of the PiS.
Even if approved by parliament, the legislation may be vetoed by PiS ally President Andrzej Duda and will be opposed by the Constitutional Court itself. Is this the start of a broader legislative crisis?
