In an attempt to break the deadlock over choosing a new human rights commissioner, the conservative ruling party’s nominee has offered to allow the opposition to name his two deputies in return for supporting his appointment. One could have “left-liberal views”, he says.
The five-year term of the current commissioner, Adam Bodnar, finished in September last year. However, the two houses of parliament – where the Law and Justice (PiS) party has a majority in the Sejm, but the opposition controls the Senate – have been unable to agree on a successor.
Last month, the Constitutional Tribunal, which is widely seen as being under PiS’s influence, ruled that Bodnar could not remain in office past the end of his term. It ordered him to leave within three months, giving parliament that period to amend the relevant law.
On the same day as the tribunal issued its ruling, the PiS majority in the Sejm voted to nominate one of its own MPs, Bartłomiej Wróblewski, as its candidate to replace Bodnar. His candidacy then passed to the Senate, which has yet to vote on it.
In February, the upper house rejected the previous nominee proposed by the Sejm, deputy foreign minister Piotr Wawrzyk. The Sejm has likewise rejected opposition-backed candidates, including Zuzanna Rudzińska-Bluszcz, who previously worked under Bodnar.
Now, in an attempt to break the deadlock, Wróblewski has written an article – entitled “Building Bridges of Understanding” – for centre-right daily Rzeczpospolita, offering a “compromise” to the opposition.
Zapraszam opozycję do tego, by rekomendowała dwóch zastępców – pisze w środę w „Rzeczpospolitej” kandydat @pisorgpl na #RzecznikPrawObywatelskich Bartłomiej Wróblewski. #RPO #opozycjahttps://t.co/U8seOaRCno
— Tygodnik Sieci (@Tygodnik_Sieci) May 5, 2021
“If I am elected, I would like the commissioner’s office to be ideologically diverse,” wrote Wróblewski. “Because a political compromise is needed to choose a commissioner, I invite the opposition to recommend two deputies.”
“Senators could choose people who would guarantee that their point of view would be respected,” he continued. “I do not want to impose rules for this choice…[but] I would like one of them to be responsible for the rights of farmers and inhabitants of villages, and the other to be a particularly socially sensitive person, perhaps with a left-liberal outlook.”
“This would not only break the political stalemate, but also pluralise the institution itself,” added Wróblewski. “It would be a good sign in our divided society that there is a place where it was possible to work out cross-party compromise and that this will be an institution that does not act on the side of the government or the opposition, but on the side of the citizens, all citizens.”
Given that the opposition has only a narrow majority in the Senate, even the support of one of its senators could swing the vote in favour of Wróblewski. One opposition member – Jan Filip Libicki of the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL) – had previously suggested he may support the PiS candidate.
However, this week Libicki told RMF FM that he will abstain from voting. That leaves Wróblewski likely to be short of a majority.
His candidacy has been controversial not only because he would be a ruling party MP appointed to what, as he says himself, should be an apolitical role acting as a check on the government, but also because of his past actions and rhetoric regarding abortion and nationalism.
Wróblewski was a leading figure among the PiS MPs who made an application to the Constitutional Tribunal which resulted in a near-total ban on abortion. That ruling, which opinion polls show is opposed by the majority of the public, prompted the largest protests in Poland’s post-communist history.
In 2016, Wróblewski provided money to help activists from National Radical Camp (ONR) – a far-right group that seeks an “ethnically homogeneous” Poland and which the country’s Supreme Court recently ruled could be described as “fascist” – travel to Warsaw for the annual nationalist Independence March.
“I believe that patriotic attitudes must be supported,” Wróblewski told TVN24 last month when asked about the money. He noted that it had come from his own pocket, not party funds, and went on organising transport, not to ONR directly.
“I believe that the Independence March is a great initiative,” added Wróblewski. The event – which is organised by three far-right groups, including ONR – has often ended in violence, including last year. Racist, antisemitic and homophobic slogans have regularly appeared.
But Wróblewski told TVN24 that his support for the march “does not mean I accept any hooligan behaviour on the fringes”. He added that “I strongly dissociate myself from xenophobic behaviour”. Leading figures from PiS have also praised the march and blamed violence on “provocateurs”.
PiS and its supporters have often themselves argued that Bodnar – who was appointed under the previous government but had no political affiliation – has effectively acted as part of the opposition.
He has repeatedly clashed with PiS on a range of issues. It was due to his intervention that a court ordered the media takeover by state oil giant Orlen to be suspended last month; that anti-LGBT resolutions were overturned in court; and that some coronavirus restrictions were declared unlawful.
Bodnar has also been an opponent of the government’s judicial policies, which have been condemned for violating the rule of law by a range of international institutions.
This week, President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, accused Bodnar of “anti-Polish” rhetoric because he had told international media that Poland is heading “in the direction of an undemocratic state”.
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
