Poland’s constitutional court rules parliament cannot put central bank chief on trial

The Constitutional Tribunal (TK) today ruled that provisions that would allow Poland’s central bank governor to be put on trial are unconstitutional.

This is yet another attempt by the TK, widely seen as under the influence of the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, to prevent the ruling coalition from taking action against Adam Glapiński, the governor of the National Bank of Poland (NBP) and a close associate of PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński.

Politicians from the ruling coalition, which has been ignoring the TK’s decisions for several months already, brushed off the court’s latest ruling.

In March, 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 accused him of breaking several laws and violating the central bank’s political independence.

On Tuesday, however, the TK ruled that the legislation allowing Glapiński to be brought before the constitutional accountability committee, which would decide whether to bring him before the State Tribunal, was unconstitutional. The committee was due to start work on a motion to put Glapiński on trial in September, reported the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

“The powers of the constitutional accountability committee far exceed those of the Sejm provided for in the Polish constitution,” said TK judge Krystyna Pawłowicz, a former PiS MP, in the justification for Tuesday’s ruling.

“The constitution provides for the possibility of holding the governor of the National Bank of Poland accountable before the State Tribunal, but it does not provide for a kind of ‘pre-court’ preceding proceedings before the State Tribunal,” she continued.

She noted that the committee is “an organ of the Sejm whose staffing is decided by the Sejm majority and is political in nature”, adding that this would also undermine the independence of the central bank governor provided by the constitution.

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Today’s motion, filed by PiS MPs in late March, was presented before the constitutional court by Paweł Jabłoński, a PiS MP and a former deputy foreign minister in the PiS government. He argued that bringing the NBP chief before the constitutional accountability committee could be a form of political pressure on the central bank governor.

“The committee always reflects the majority of the Sejm. A political body such as the Sejm thus obtains a certain influence on the NBP governor and the NBP,” Jabłoński said before the TK on Tuesday, as quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza.

He argued that Glapiński’s independence would be affected by “the creation of the public perception that the NBP governor is a suspect”.

The ruling was made anonymously. The adjudicating panel consisted of five judges, including Pawłowicz, chief justice Julia Przyłębska (whose term in office the ruling coalition argues has already expired), national prosecutor under PiS Bogdan Święczkowski, PiS politician Bartłomiej Sochański, and TK judge Zbigniew Jędrzejewski.

Representatives of the prosecutor general’s office and the Sejm did not attend the hearing, which only lasted about half an hour, reported Gazeta Wyborcza.

The ruling coalition considers the TK to be “defective” as its bench includes unlawfully appointed so-called “double judges”, a stance echoed in rulings made by Polish and European courts. The unlawfully appointed judges did not adjudicate in this case.

The government has not published any judgments of the TK since April, meaning that they do not enter into force. It is also unlikely that today’s ruling will be published.

Dariusz Rosati, an MP from Civic Coalition (KO), the largest group in the ruling coalition, called the TK ruling “a pathetic masquerade performed by a group pretending to be the Constitutional Tribunal”.

“It is known that they will do whatever Kaczyński tells them to do, and it is known that their ‘rulings’ have no meaning. Glapiński deserves a State Tribunal,” he added.

Another MP from the ruling coalition, Ryszard Petru of Poland2050 (Polska2050), meanwhile said that “this desperate move will achieve nothing – Governor Glapiński will be held accountable for his actions”.

In April, the TK addressed the Sejm directly, calling for a halt to the procedure to put Glapiński on trial, but the speaker of parliament, Szymon Hołownia, rejected the request, calling it an “unlawful interference”.

In January, the TK also issued a ruling that would effectively prevent the government from bringing Glapiński before the State Tribunal. It ruled that requiring only a simple majority of MPs to put the central bank governor on trial is unconstitutional. It said a three-fifths majority is required.

That figure cannot be achieved by the ruling coalition, which has 241 MPs in the 460-seat Sejm, well below the three-fifths threshold of 276.

Main image credit: NBP/X

Alicja Ptak

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