Parliament to ignore constitutional court order not to proceed with putting central bank chief on trial

The speaker of parliament, Szymon Hołownia, has announced that he will ignore an order by the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) to halt proceedings to put central bank governor Adam Glapiński on trial.

Hołownia, who is a leading figure in the current ruling coalition, says that the TK, which is widely seen as being under the influence of the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, has “unlawfully interfered” by trying to prevent action against Glapiński, who is a close associate of PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński.

However, the head of the TK, Julia Przyłębska, who is also a close associate of Kaczyński, had responded by accusing Hołownia of “misleading the public”.

Last month, the ruling coalition submitted a motion to the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, to bring Glapiński before the State Tribunal, a body empowered to punish the highest officials of state. They accuse him of breaking several laws and violating the central bank’s political independence.

On Wednesday this week, Hołownia announced that he had received a copy of a decision made earlier this month by the TK which informed him that parliament “has no right to deal with the application to put Adam Glapiński before the State Tribunal”.

“We carried out very intensive legal analyses of what we received and I want to state emphatically that the Constitutional Tribunal has clearly exceeded its powers by issuing this decision,” declared Hołownia.

“As the speaker of the Sejm, I guard the dignity of this house, but also the rights of the Sejm, and I cannot imagine a situation in which someone would unlawfully interfere with the competences and constitutional rights of the Sejm,” he continued.

“That is why I would like to inform you that I will not implement the resolution sent to us by Mrs. Julia Przyłębska and I will continue to process, in accordance with the law, the motion to bring Governor Glapiński before the State Tribunal.”

According to the speaker, not only does the TK not have the right to order the suspension of Sejm processes but it also issued its decision with an illegitimately staffed bench. Polish and European courts have ruled in the past that some of the judges sitting on the TK were unlawfully appointed.

However, Hołownia said that as the motion filed against Glapiński contained some paperwork mistakes, the constitutional accountability committee, which will ultimately examine the request, will have to first asses whether the motion should be sent back to be completed before it could be properly considered.

“I believe that [bringing Glapiński before the State Tribunal] should take place without any formal doubts, without a shadow of a legal doubt,” Hołownia noted.

Shortly after the statement made by the Sejm speaker, Przyłębska sent him a letter, which was published on social media by another of the TK’s judges, in which she accused Hołownia of acting unconstitutionally.

“I would like to remind you that…decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal have universality and are final,” Przyłębska said in her letter. “At the same time, I ask you to cite the Constitutional Tribunal’s decisions in a way that does not mislead the public as to their content.”

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Main image credit: Sejm

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.