“I deeply regret that President Nawrocki has decided to continue what his predecessor Andrzej Duda and former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro were doing,” Tusk told reporters during a visit to Racibórz in southern Poland on Tuesday.
“We are trying to rebuild a justice system in Poland that is independent of politicians and resistant to political interference,” he added.
The comments came after Nawrocki said earlier in the day that he would not approve what he called “segregation of judges into neo-judges and paleo-judges.”
The terms refer to a long-running dispute over the legitimacy of judges appointed since 2018, when the previous government led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party changed the composition of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), the body responsible for nominating judges.
Speaking at a ceremony for new judges and judicial assessors, Nawrocki said the law governing the KRS remains in force and that, as “guardian of the constitution,” he would ensure its observance.
Tusk, responding to those remarks, said that “if the issue were not serious, one could say the president was joking when he claimed that politicians are interfering in the justice system.”
He added that the real problem was reversing "years of politicization of the courts" under PiS rule.
Last week, Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek unveiled what he called a “rule-of-law bill” aimed at clarifying the legal status of judges appointed after 2018.
The proposal includes repeating judicial appointment procedures conducted under the current KRS and resolving the status of those considered “improperly appointed.”
Żurek described the proposal as a compromise, saying the ministry wanted “a law that will be signed, not thrown into the trash by the president.”
The standoff over judicial reform has been one of the main points of tension between the government and the president since Nawrocki took office in early August.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP