It is clear to us that ODIHR should devote the maximum possible time and effort to observing the parliamentary election next year in Poland including on election day. Given that the election campaign has already begun, this overview could, as much as possible, include political processes taking place before the official start of the campaign – 13 Polish NGOs call on OSCE/ODIHR to monitor 2023 elections

No representative of any non-governmental organisation supporting the authorities was chosen for the National Recovery Plan Monitoring Committee, which is supposed to supervise the spending of EU money. So the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy decided to re-select its members from the beginning.

The electoral process is overseen by all courts – from district courts to the Supreme Court. And they are all tainted by their unconstitutional design and staffed by the politicised National Council of the Judiciary, so they do not provide basic guarantees of fair and honest voting.

‘This is a show of contempt for the work we do. The authorities are proving that they can do anything they like with a judge,’ commented Judge Marzanna Piekarska-Drążek of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw in an interview with Onet on the decision to move her to the labour and social insurance division after 30 years of adjudicating in the criminal division. On Monday, after returning from her holiday, she found out that she is to work in a completely different place from next week.

‘We have really demonstrated maximum goodwill. From the point of view of the treaties, we are under no obligation to listen to the Union on the justice system. None whatsoever,’ said Jarosław Kaczyński, when asked about the ‘milestones’ in the National Recovery Plan during a successive pre-election meeting.

Michał Dworczyk discussed the forthcoming decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal with Julia Przyłębska – as arises from the e-mails posted on Poufna Rozmowa. The head of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery reported on his discussion with the president of the Constitutional Tribunal in e-mails to Mateusz Morawiecki.

Mateusz Morawiecki’s close associates have prepared a ready interview attacking the judges who ruled unfavourably for the prime minister during the local elections. It was published by the pro-government portal wPolityce.pl run by the brothers Jacek and Michał Karnowski.

Polish and international civil society organisations write to the President of the Commission and the commissioners responsible for the Rule of Law, requesting an infringement action as regards the National Council of the Judiciary

‘I would very much like them to be shorter and very succinct, using words such as: we cannot allow legal chaos, conjugating this through all cases, and using the thesaurus, namely anarchy, disorder, inertia, mess,’ Morawiecki wrote.

Judge Waldemar Żurek heard as many as 64 disciplinary charges today from Disciplinary Commissioners Piotr Schab and Michał Lasota. They are also not ruling out notifying the public prosecutor’s office because they claim that Żurek committed a ‘falsification of judgments’. This applies to the dates on some of the court’s decisions being the same as the dates on which Żurek was present at NCJ meetings in Warsaw. Meanwhile, he adjudicates in Kraków.