Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk urged President Karol Nawrocki on Monday to recognize judges elected by the Sejm and let them serve on the Constitutional Tribunal, deepening a dispute over the court’s authority.
Writing in Polish on X, Tusk said the conflict could be resolved “without amending the constitution” and called for the judges to begin their work at the Tribunal.
Poland’s Constitution assigns the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, the choice of the Tribunal’s 15 judges, individually, for nine-year terms. A separate statute requires each judge to take an oath before the president. The dispute turns on how that oath requirement affects judges’ ability to take office.
The Sejm elected eight people to the Tribunal in 2026: six on March 13, Sławomir Patyra on June 11 and Maciej Berek on Sept. 4. In an Oct. 13 opinion, the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission said Nawrocki had received oaths from two of the March appointees and from Patyra. Four others elected in March took their oaths at the Sejm on April 9, but had not been admitted to judicial duties. The opinion said Berek had not taken an oath before the president by that date.
The commission said the president should administer the oath promptly and not use it to reassess the Sejm’s selection. If he refuses or delays, it recommended a procedure for judges to send him a verified written oath. Nawrocki’s office says the oath must be taken in his presence. A case concerning the president’s authority was pending when the commission issued its opinion.
In an Oct. 31 statement, Nawrocki said Poland’s constitutional order had been violated and called for government forces to leave the Tribunal’s premises. The statement came amid a fight over the Tribunal’s leadership.
Earlier appointment clashes date to 2015, when successive Sejms selected different candidates for some of the same Tribunal seats. On Dec. 18, 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Poland had breached EU law in cases involving Tribunal decisions. It said serious irregularities in appointments of three judges and the Tribunal’s president raised questions about the court’s independence.
An order dated Nov. 2 scheduled a Tribunal judges’ assembly for Nov. 3 at 9:30 a.m. ET (2:30 p.m. UTC) to consider the proposed 2027 budget. The notice named Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska as acting in place of the Tribunal’s president.
