PSL leader Kosiniak-Kamysz to present constitutional reset plan amid Tribunal dispute

Reset proposal announced to coalition

Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, who also heads the Ministry of National Defence and the Polish People's Party (PSL), told coalition partners on Wednesday, 4 November, that he will submit a constitutional reset bill. Sejm Marshal Włodzimierz Czarzasty passed on the announcement at a press conference before a Sejm sitting on Thursday, 5 November. Czarzasty said he would wait to see what the reset involves and what proposals Kosiniak-Kamysz presents. He also said he was sceptical about changing the constitution during the current Sejm term. He named Law and Justice (PiS) and the wider right as the groups he considers unsuitable for talks, and he doubted that the majority needed for an amendment could be assembled.

“I do not consider it appropriate to hold talks with those who violate the constitution.”

Tribunal dispute behind the proposal

The reset debate returned after events around the Constitutional Tribunal. On Friday, 30 October, persons elected to the Tribunal by the current Sejm majority entered its building from the side of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, with the consent of its head. Police and the State Protection Service also took part in the operation. The same day, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska was announced as the person leading the Tribunal's work, and she issued an order suspending the Tribunal's president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and its vice-president, Bartłomiej Sochański. Protests in front of the Tribunal building intensified in response.

President Karol Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal and returned to Warsaw late on Friday evening. He met the First President of the Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapiński, and then went to the Tribunal. Early on Saturday, 31 October, he issued a statement describing the events as follows:

“There has been a violation of the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland and a forcible takeover of a constitutional state body.”

Political response and next steps

On Saturday, 31 October, Nawrocki held consultations with parliamentary groups at the Presidential Palace. Deputy Marshal of the Sejm Piotr Zgorzelski and Kosiniak-Kamysz attended, and the talks covered the Tribunal crisis and the possible ways of resolving it. That day Kosiniak-Kamysz also spoke with Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, according to PSL club chair Krzysztof Paszyk, who was asked about the party's role between the government and the Presidential Palace.

“I think we are already a link. The situation requires it, and so does the responsibility we bear.”

Paszyk said the party aims to reach a solution that would permanently end the conflict over the Tribunal. Tusk gave an address on Saturday evening, saying the state must be strong and able to enforce justice. Dariusz Klimczak, the minister of infrastructure, said Kosiniak-Kamysz would present a legislative plan aimed at ending the dispute at noon on Thursday, 5 November, the same day as a Congress of Polish Local Government attended by PSL politicians. Klimczak described that plan as the first step, with a second, political step to be presented on Sunday, 8 November, in Wierzchosławice.