The leader of the Polish opposition party Law and Justice (PiS, by its acronym in Polish), Mateusz Morawiecki, has communicated this Saturday his plan to register a motion of censure against the Executive of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in the midst of the escalation of the political confrontation over control of the Constitutional Tribunal.
"We are going to present a motion of censure against Tusk's Government," Morawiecki has proclaimed in a message published on social media in which he explains that he aspires to "a technical government" headed by the former president of Parliament Marek Jurek and that would remain in office until elections are held with a view to the formation of "a new parliamentary majority". The candidacy of "Jurek" is open to discussion.
"He is a well-regarded and established politician. He can also receive the support of broad political groups, calm the situation and achieve a compromise," Morawiecki later explained in statements to the press.
Morawiecki also defends a "restart" of the Constitutional Tribunal, "a point on which various political forces agree". "The President of the Republic and the legitimate president of the Constitutional Tribunal have also underscored this," he stated.
However, "this restart cannot include those who are currently attacking the Constitutional Tribunal". "Their place is in the garbage heap of history, and in the dock of the accused before independent courts," he stated.
"Putting an end to the disastrous mandate of this coalition is only the beginning. It is necessary to have a concrete plan for what will come next, ensuring that the dramatic events we witnessed yesterday never happen again," he concluded.
Polish legislation establishes that a motion of censure must be supported by a minimum of 46 parliamentarians and be accompanied by the proposal of a candidate for prime minister. To succeed, this candidacy must be approved by an absolute majority —231 votes— within a period of no less than seven days from its registration. The lower chamber has 460 seats and, currently, the opposition only totals 212 deputies.
In parallel, the Government of Donald Tusk has promoted in recent months the appointment of up to six new judges to the Constitutional Tribunal, although the president of the country, Andrzej Duda, has only agreed to swear in two of them.
The institutional crisis worsened on Friday, when one of the court’s magistrates, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, decided to unilaterally suspend for one month the president of the court, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and its vice president, Bartlomiej Sochanski, while the Constitutional Court headquarters remained surrounded by the Police, under the orders of Tusk’s Executive.