President vetoes Polish ruling coalition’s bill changing how presidential election would be validated

Mar 11, 2025 | Law, Politics

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

President Andrzej Duda has vetoed a bill passed by the Polish government’s majority in parliament that would have changed the way the results of this year’s presidential election are validated by the Supreme Court.

The speaker of parliament says that the veto “deepens the legal uncertainty surrounding the elections” because their results will be validated by judges unlawfully appointed under the judicial reforms of the former Law and Justice (PiS) government.

However, Duda – who is an ally of PiS, which is now the main opposition party – pointed out that the current ruling coalition came to power in elections that were validated by the same Supreme Court judges it is now questioning.

Currently, after elections take place, it is necessary for the Supreme Court’s chamber of extraordinary review and public affairs to confirm the validity of results. The same chamber is also responsible for confirming the status of election candidates and resolving legal disputes around elections.

However, the chamber was created as part of the former PiS government’s disputed judicial reforms, many parts of which have been found to violate Polish and European law.

In particular, it is filled with judges nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) after that body was overhauled by PiS in a manner that brought it under political control. Polish and European courts have found that this rendered the KRS illegitimate, thereby calling into question the status of judges nominated by it.

 

In January, the current government’s majority in parliament approved a bill that would have changed the way this year’s presidential election is validated. Instead of the extraordinary review and public affairs chamber doing so, the task would be assigned to the 15 Supreme Court judges with the longest service.

The court’s various chambers have dozens of judges in total, and the new rules would have ensured that only judges who were appointed to the court before PiS’s overhaul of the KRS. However, as had been widely expected, Duda has now exercised his right as president to veto the bill.

Speaking to the media outside the presidential palace on Monday, the head of Duda’s chancellery, Małgorzata Paprocka, explained why he had decided to reject the proposed law.

She noted, first of all, that the extraordinary review and public affairs chamber had already confirmed the validity of a number of elections, including the 2023 parliamentary elections that brought the current ruling coalition to power.

“These rulings have never been questioned, including by the parliamentary majority that rules Poland today,” noted Paprocka, who also pointed out that figures from the current government, including justice minister Adam Bodnar, have previously been willing to submit cases to the chamber.

Moreover, said Paprocka, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has previously established that significant changes to electoral law should not be implemented less than six months before elections. This year’s presidential election is due to take place in just over two months, on 18 May.

Paprocka also suggested that efforts to “question the composition of the Supreme Court” may be part of broader attempts to influence the outcome of the presidential election, including by the European Union.

“We have very bad experiences with the blocking of funds at the EU level in order to influence the parliamentary elections in Poland,” she said, referring to 2023. After a new, more EU-friendly government led by Donald Tusk replaced PiS after those elections, the EU quickly unblocked Poland’s frozen funds.

“It seems that similar procedures are also meant to accompany [this year’s] presidential election,” said Paprocka, who pointed to the European Commission’s plans to soon hold a special round-table discussion on the integrity of Poland’s elections.

A presidential veto can be overturned by a three-fifths supermajority in the Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament. However, the government does not have enough MPs to achieve this and the opposition is against the proposed law.

A senior lawmaker from the ruling coalition, Marek Sawicki, told broadcaster Polsat that he was “disappointed with the president’s veto” and claimed that Paprocka’s arguments were “irrational”.

“Ms Paprocka forgets that the Supreme Court itself ruled that the chamber of extraordinary review and public affairs is not a [lawful] court,” said Sawicki, who warned that the results of the presidential election may now be called into question.

“We are on the threshold of potential legal and systematic chaos,” warned the speaker of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, in December when presenting the bill in question. Yesterday, he warned that Duda’s veto “deepens the legal uncertainty surrounding the presidential elections”.

When Tusk’s government took power in December 2023, it pledged to undo PiS’s judicial reforms. However, it has so far seen its efforts blocked by Duda, who has exercised his right to either veto bills passed by parliament or to pass them for assessment to the TK, which is stacked with PiS-appointed judges.

The government’s hopes of finally implementing its agenda rest in large part on a more friendly president being elected this year to replace Duda, whose second and final term ends in August.

The current frontrunner is Rafał Trzaskowski, the candidate of Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO), who is averaging support of around 34% in polls. He is then followed by PiS-backed candidate Karol Nawrocki (23%) and Sławomir Mentzen (17%) of Confederation (Konfederacja), a far-right opposition party.

If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the first round on 18 May, a run-off between the top two will be held two weeks later.

Weekly rolling average of support in polls for Poland’s main presidential candidates compiled by ewybory.eu

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Marek Borawski/KPRP

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