President Karol Nawrocki Swears in Only Two of Six Elected Constitutional Tribunal Judges

Polish President Karol Nawrocki accepted the oath of office from only two of the six judges elected by the Sejm to the Constitutional Tribunal on April 1, 2026, triggering an immediate constitutional dispute with the government coalition. The two judges sworn in at the Presidential Palace were Dariusz Szostek and Magdalena Bentkowska. The remaining four judges elected by the Sejm on March 13 — Krystian Markiewicz, Maciej Taborowski, Marcin Dziurda, and Anna Korwin-Piotrowska — received no invitation from the president and cannot begin their duties without taking the oath. Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek called the president's selective action a potential violation of the constitution and appealed to Nawrocki to invite the remaining four judges without delay.

Presidential Palace offers "dispersed appointment" as legal rationale Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the President's Chancellery, held a press conference on Wednesday to explain the president's reasoning, citing two grounds for accepting only two oaths. Bogucki stated that since Nawrocki assumed office on August 6, 2025, only two judicial vacancies in the Constitutional Tribunal had expired during his term, and that swearing in two judges brings the Tribunal to a full bench of 11 judges, fulfilling the statutory requirement. Bogucki added that the situation of the remaining four elected judges is "being analyzed" by the President's Chancellery and that "there is no decision regarding them" at this time. He also introduced what he called a "formula of dispersed swearing-in and dispersed appointment," a concept that Deputy Marshal of the Senate Maciej Żywno said he had "never heard of in the legal or constitutional space." Bogucki further warned that any oath taken before a body other than the president could constitute a constitutional tort and a criminal offense. Żurek dismissed that warning, saying it amounted to intimidation and "a creative interpretation of the law."

„The president cannot choose according to his own whim whom he wants to see in the Constitutional Tribunal. I therefore appeal to the president to invite the remaining four as soon as possible — so that the CT can function properly. Otherwise, it will be an obvious violation of the constitution.” — Waldemar Żurek via Polsat News

Four uninvited judges write to the palace, consider oath "to the nation" All four judges who did not receive invitations sent letters to the Presidential Palace on Wednesday requesting that a date be set for their swearing-in. Krystian Markiewicz stated in his letter, relayed through the Polish Press Agency, that he "was elected in the same way as the judges who took the oath today" and wants to begin performing his duties as soon as possible. Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska went further, suggesting in an interview with Onet that the four judges do not rule out taking the oath "to the nation in a different formula than in the presence of the president." She argued that the constitutional text of the oath contains an explicit phrase that judges "swear to the nation," and that the requirement to take the oath "before the president" appears only in statute, not in the constitution itself. Żurek, speaking to journalists, said he supports effectiveness and listed possible alternative formats, including taking the oath before parliament, before the Marshal of the Sejm, or by correspondence. Newly sworn-in judge Magdalena Bentkowska, speaking after leaving the Presidential Palace, said she was not informed whether the remaining four judges would be invited, and emphasized that "everyone should have the opportunity to take the oath" since "there are no grounds to differentiate between judges."

„One might get the impression that the president and his ministers are pretending that the four of us do not exist. But we do exist, and we will take decisive actions aimed at assuming office.” — Anna Korwin-Piotrowska via Do Rzeczy

Poland's Constitutional Tribunal has been at the center of a prolonged institutional dispute since 2015, when the previous government led by Law and Justice (PiS) began appointing judges in a manner that critics and the European Commission described as undermining judicial independence. The current government coalition, which took office in December 2023 under Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has sought to restore what it describes as the rule of law, including by reconstituting the Tribunal. The Sejm elected six new judges on March 13, 2026, as part of that effort. The dispute over the oath-taking procedure adds a new dimension to the ongoing tension between President Nawrocki, who took office in August 2025, and the Tusk-led government.

Legal experts warn the standoff threatens citizens' security Przemysław Rosati, president of the Supreme Bar Council, rejected the presidential rationale point by point, stating that the constitution assigns no role to the president in creating the status of a Constitutional Tribunal judge and that the president "has no right to control a resolution of the Sejm." Rosati described Bogucki's argument — that the president fills only vacancies arising during his own term — as "illogical," because it leads to the conclusion that four seats "can never be filled," which he said finds no support in either the constitution or statute. Political scientist Olgierd Annusewicz of the University of Warsaw offered a more measured assessment, suggesting the president had used the situation to his advantage while also noting that the government coalition "did not properly prepare the process of repairing the Constitutional Tribunal."

„The president has an obligation to create the possibility of taking the oath. The lack of such action finds no legal justification. This is a situation that cannot be explained by existing regulations.” — Przemysław Rosati via naTemat.pl

Deputy Marshal of the Senate Magdalena Biejat, from the Left, said she saw no explanation for the president's move other than "sowing chaos," adding that Nawrocki was "picking and choosing judges for himself, which is absolutely beyond everything, beyond any procedure." Maciej Żywno, Deputy Marshal of the Senate from Poland 2050, called the president's choice "completely incomprehensible" and "selective," and said the coalition "has the right to expect that he will accept the oaths from all six." Żywno also noted that the introduction of a "dispersed appointment" framework on April 1 — April Fools' Day — left the government facing a new dilemma: whether to wait for the president to invite the remaining four judges or to pursue an alternative oath procedure. Rosati warned that the standoff is not merely a political dispute but one that "strikes at the interest of every citizen" by weakening trust in the state and legal security.

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