‘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.

President Andrzej Duda attacked the organizations of judges for challenging the Polish National Recovery Plan before the CJEU. According to the President, judges want to govern. However, Duda does not understand how the separation of powers works and does not know that judges can protest and express their opinions. 

Piotr Schab, president of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw, confirmed that the transfer of two judges to different divisions is a penalty for applying judgments of the ECtHR and the CJEU. Schab and his deputy, Radzik, will face criminal liability in the future for the repressions.

‘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.

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.

“As a coalition of legal and human rights associations operating in the area of the protection of human rights, associating, among others, the most important associations of judges in Poland, we are writing to you about the implementation of the rulings of the EU Court of Justice by the Polish authorities in the context of the negotiations on the approval of the Polish National Recovery Plan (NRP) and the conditions for subsequent disbursements from the Reconstruction Fund.”

Never before have the judges in Europe been so unified and united,’ says Monika Frąckowiak, judge of the District Court in Poznań.