Polish ruling party seeks to end legal immunity for all MPs and judges

Poland’s ruling party, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), has submitted legislation that would change the constitution in order to strip members of parliament and judges of the immunity from prosecution that they currently hold.

“Supporting this bill will be a test of the honesty and credibility of the entire political class, especially for the [opposition] majority in the Senate,” wrote the head of PiS’s caucus in the Senate, Marek Pęk.

Unlike normal legislation, changes to the constitution require a supermajority of two thirds of votes in the lower-house Sejm – where PiS has only a narrow majority – as well as a simple majority in the Senate, where the opposition holds power. PiS would therefore require opposition support in both chambers.

At present, members of parliament have immunity from criminal prosecution. That can, however, be lifted for individual lawmakers if a majority in their chamber votes in favour of doing so.

Last week, two opposition MPs lost their immunity. One, Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus of The Left (Lewica), will face prosecution for the crime of insulting religious feelings by protesting in a church after the government’s majority in the Sejm voted to strip her immunity.

Another, Borys Budka of Civic Platform (PO), voluntarily gave up his immunity to face an indictment for criminal defamation filed by a PiS MP just before a vote took place.

Judges likewise enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution unless the relevant judicial disciplinary chamber chooses to let them face charges.

Under PiS, the disciplinary regime for judges has been toughened, with the party arguing that the “judicial caste”, as they call it, has long enjoyed a privileged, unaccountable status.

However, many – including the domestic opposition, many legal experts, the majority of the public, and international institutions, including the European Commission – regard the government’s reforms as being aimed at intimidating independent judges and bringing the judiciary under greater political control.

Critics also accuse PiS of politicising the prosecutorial service, which has been brought under the control of the justice minister.

In its new legislative proposal, PiS wants to change articles 105 and 181 of the constitution, said Marek Ast, the PiS MP who heads the parliamentary justice and human rights committee.

The former article outlines the form and scope of parliamentarians’ immunity and the latter does the same for judges. Ast explained that, if the legislation is passed, lawmakers would only have legal immunity for actions undertaken directly in the performance of their parliamentary mandate, reports Onet.

“We are convinced that opposition parliamentarians’ will also support this bill, because it is obvious that there is some abuse of this instrument of immunity,” said Ryszard Terlecki, the head of PiS’s caucus in the Sejm, quoted by Wirtualna Polska. He added that there would be “intensive work on the bill in the New Year”.

However, Budka – who is head of PO’s caucus in the Sejm – responded negatively to PiS’s announcement. He noted that the ruling party had in the past voted against stripping immunity from a number of its own MPs, and called PiS “a bunch of hypocrites”.

Main image credit: Maciej Śmiarowski/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

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.