President Karol Nawrocki to Swear In Two Constitutional Tribunal Judges on April 1

Polish President Karol Nawrocki will accept the oath of office from two of the six newly elected Constitutional Tribunal judges on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, at 11:00 AM at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, according to findings reported unofficially by TVN's "Fakty" program and confirmed by RMF FM. The two judges invited for the ceremony are Magdalena Bentkowska, recommended by the PSL party, and Dariusz Szostek, recommended by Poland 2050. The remaining four judges elected by the Sejm — Krystian Markiewicz, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, Maciej Taborowski, and Marcin Dziurda — have not been invited to take the oath, and no information is available on when or whether they will be.

Two weeks of silence followed the Sejm vote The Sejm elected all six judges on March 13, 2026, with all candidates formally nominated by the Presidium of the Sejm and in practice put forward by the caucuses forming the ruling coalition. The three judges recommended by KO — Krystian Markiewicz, Maciej Taborowski, and Marcin Dziurda — along with Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, recommended by the Left, are among those not yet invited. Following the Sejm vote, the Presidential Chancellery declined to invite the newly elected judges to the Presidential Palace, citing reservations about the legality of the election procedure. Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the Presidential Chancellery, sent a letter to Sejm Marshal Włodzimierz Czarzasty outlining those doubts and stating that the president's further actions would depend on the answers received. The ruling coalition argued publicly that President Nawrocki had no legal basis to refuse to administer the oath, but the standoff persisted for over two weeks without resolution.

The dispute over the Constitutional Tribunal's composition has been a central point of political conflict in Poland since the ruling coalition took office in December 2023. The Sejm's election of six new judges on March 13, 2026 was itself contested, with constitutionalists disagreeing on whether individuals elected by the Sejm become judges from the moment the resolution is passed or only upon taking the oath before the president. Alternative scenarios for completing the oath-taking procedure were also discussed, including the possibility of swearing in judges before the Marshal of the Sejm or the National Assembly rather than the president.

Nawrocki returned from CPAC before announcing the move President Nawrocki made the decision after returning from a visit to the United States, where he attended the CPAC conference in Dallas, Texas. On March 27, presidential spokesman Rafał Leśkiewicz stated that the head of state would announce his decision after the trip. On March 29, Marcin Przydacz, who accompanied the president in the United States, told reporters that Nawrocki was "analyzing this situation" and declined to preempt the president's decision. The decision to swear in only two of the six judges — those recommended by the smaller coalition partners PSL and Poland 2050, rather than the three backed by the largest coalition party KO — was described by Do Rzeczy as "unexpected." The fate of the four remaining judges, including all three recommended by KO, remains unresolved as of the reporting date.

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