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View of the Polish parliament ahead of Monday's vote of confidence
Photo: Wojtek Radwanski / AFP
Poland's controversial Constitutional Court has ruled that penalty payments imposed on Poland by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) are unconstitutional. The penalty payments ordered by the ECJ for the controversial Polish judicial reform and non-compliance with environmental requirements in coal mining "are contrary to the Polish constitution," the court ruled. Poland's Constitutional Court is under the influence of the national-conservative PiS party, whose head of government wanted to ask parliament for a vote of confidence on Monday.
Similar decisions had already been made in Poland in the past. In 2021, for example, the Constitutional Court ruled that parts of EU law were incompatible with Polish law.
Parliament convened on Monday for a crucial session at which former EU Council President and former Prime Minister Donald Tusk is expected to be tasked with forming a government. In the afternoon, outgoing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of the right-wing nationalist PiS party is expected to ask for a vote of confidence in his new government. Since the PiS has not had a majority in parliament since the elections in mid-October, it is generally expected to fail. After that, it would be the turn of the pro-European opposition led by Tusk to form a government of its own.
In the elections on 15 October, the PiS won the most votes, but fell short of an absolute majority and was unable to win over enough allies. Tusk's liberal-conservative Civic Coalition and its two coalition partners have a clear parliamentary majority and have already agreed on a coalition agreement. Despite the electoral success of the opposition, President Andrzej Duda, who is close to the PiS, had tasked Morawiecki with forming a government, thus securing the PiS two more months in power.
aeh/AFP