Żurek replaced Adam Bodnar during a ceremony at the Presidential Palace that reshaped the Council of Ministers.
“I will do everything to restore a lawful state and the principles of the tripartite division of power, and to respect the constitution and all international treaties binding Poland,” he said outside the Justice Ministry after taking the oath.
He cautioned “those politicians who threaten independent judges and prosecutors and try to intimidate them,” noting that, in his view, there is currently no National Council of the Judiciary to give such figures constitutional protection.
“I will react to such situations with full determination,” he added. “These threats will not be let go.”
Żurek asked for patience as he begins what he called an intense period of work, saying he prefers to speak through decisions rather than plans: “By their deeds you will know them.” He expects to meet the media again next Thursday to take questions.
The minister said many institutions “that give citizens freedom” had been destroyed and must be rebuilt. He thanked judges, independent prosecutors and “all citizens who, in difficult times when the constitution was broken and state institutions and free media were destroyed, managed to oppose it,” urging them to keep hope.
Before addressing reporters, Żurek laid flowers at a plaque honoring victims of Stalinist security forces in the ministry’s building on Aleje Ujazdowskie, where prison cells once operated.
On his first day, he said, he wanted to honor “heroes of the fight against authoritarianism”—from German fascism to Stalinism.
Raised in a patriotic family, Żurek stressed that democratic values are crucial to him. Authoritarianism, he warned, takes many forms in Europe, and “democracy is not given to us once and for all—we must fight for it, we must nurture it.”
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Source: PAP