Donald Tusk announced on Monday that he had withdrawn his signature against the president’s decision to appoint Krzysztof Wesołowski as chairman of the assembly of judges of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court. This decision was previously appealed by two judges of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court to the Provincial Administrative Court.
Donald Tusk withdraws his referendum. Opposition criticizes, lawyers have doubts
When information emerged about Tusk’s referendum on the president’s decision on the so-called new judge – that is, a judge appointed to a position in the Supreme Court by the politicized National Council of the Judiciary – this brought criticism of the Prime Minister from legal circles protesting against the judicial reforms carried out by PiS. Donald Tusk explained after some time that the referendum was held due to a mistake by his officials who did not provide him with all the information on the matter. He pointed to the chairman of the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers, Maciej Berek, as the person responsible for the mistake. Berek made himself available to the Prime Minister, but was not dismissed.
Tusk’s withdrawal of the referendum is a controversial step – many lawyers, including, among others, former President of the Constitutional Court Prof. Andrzej Zoll, believe that the Prime Minister did not have such a right. This step is also criticized as illegal by the opposition, whose representatives ask, among other things: whether President Andrzej Duda could withdraw his signature from the decision to appoint Donald Tusk as Prime Minister.
– Today we need to act in terms of a militant democracy. We will probably make mistakes or acts that, according to some legal authorities, will be incompatible or not fully consistent with the provisions of the law, but nothing exempts us from acting every day – said the prime minister on Thursday during a meeting with lawyers, constitutionalists and experts in the area of the state system, in order to “find ways out of the constitutional crisis”.
