The real winner in Poland’s constitutional battle is Putin

Résumé détaillé

The fight for control of the Constitutional Tribunal is eroding Poles' trust in their own state.

Political scientist (Warsaw University) and theologian (University of Nottingham). President of Reform & Solidarity Centre.

Poland’s two main political camps are locked in an escalating fight for control of the Constitutional Tribunal, each claiming to defend the rule of law. In the process, they are undermining the legitimacy of the Polish state in the eyes of its own citizens, playing directly into Putin’s playbook.

The roots of the dispute go back more than a decade. In 2015, the outgoing centre-right Civic Platform-controlled parliament attempted to appoint judges to the Constitutional Tribunal for vacancies that should have been left to the incoming parliament. The newly elected conservative Law and Justice government used this controversy to intensify its efforts to pack the Tribunal with party nominees rather than independent judges.

Now back in power, Civic Platform is trying to bring new judges into the Constitutional Tribunal. But President Karol Nawrocki and the Tribunal’s leadership, both aligned with Law and Justice, have blocked several of the newly appointed judges from taking office. Last month, one of the newly elected judges ordered the suspension of the Tribunal’s president and deputy, and police were deployed to the building. Nawrocki denounced the move as a forcible takeover, while Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended it as an effort to restore the rule of law.

Moscow has already seized on the confrontation to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Poland’s institutions. On November 3, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev described the intervention as a “coup”.

A decade ago, it was the conservative Law and Justice government that sought to pack the Constitutional Tribunal with party nominees, disregarding legal constraints. Today, it is the coalition of the centre-right Civic Platform and the liberal Left that is acting unlawfully. We see the main parties becoming mirror images of one another.

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