Warsaw, Nov 12, (dpa/GNA) – Polish President Karol Nawrocki, refused on Wednesday to appoint 46 new judges, escalating his confrontation with the liberal government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
In a post on X, he accused the judges nominated by the government of questioning Poland’s legal and constitutional order, and of listening to “bad whisperings from the justice minister.”
“If the appointment is the prerogative of the president, he can also refuse this appointment,” he wrote.
The dispute comes amid an attempt by Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, to reverse changes to the legal system, introduced by Poland’s former right-wing government, under the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party.
The PiS was persistently at odds with the European Union, which saw the independence of the judiciary as being under threat.
Although Nawrocki, a critic of the EU, is officially non-partisan and not a PiS member, he opposes the efforts to reverse the previous reforms.
Government spokesman Adam Szlapka said Nawrocki, had overstepped his powers by rejecting the appointments.
The former head of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, Andrzej Zoll, also described the president’s confirmation of judges as a formality. The head of state had no right to review the nominations, Zoll told the Onet news portal.
GNA