The legislation suggested by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which requires the Constitutional Tribunal to pass decisions with a two-thirds majority and at least thirteen of fifteen judges present, was supported by 235 MPs, with 181 MPs voting against and four abstaining.
All but three of the MPs voting in favour of the bill were from PiS, while the opposition Civic Platform (PO), Modern Poland, Kukiz’15 and the Polish People's Party (PSL) voted against.
The debate preceding the vote was tense with frequent clashes between PO and PiS in particular. PiS have accused PO MPs of insulting the Prime Minister, Beata Szydło, after some PO MPs accused her of not responding to their questions and “hiding” out of alleged “embarrassment”.
Among several changes to the bill, PiS backed down from previous proposals to move the Tribunal outside of Warsaw, which it had argued would give the Tribunal greater independence.
Following the vote PiS MPs stood up in the parliament and began chanting “democracy”.
The legislation now moves to the Senate, where it could be approved before Christmas.
The end in sight?
Prime Minister Beata Szydło expressed hopes that this legislation might end the ongoing conflict over the Tribunal, which began following the election of five new judges by the PO controlled parliament in early October, ahead of the 25 October general election in which PiS won a majority.
The new parliament revoked these judges and chose another five, who were promptly sworn in by President Andrzej Duda, a former member of PiS.
The Constitutional Tribunal later ruled that two of the five judges elected under PO had been elected unconstitutionally, though the other three elections were constitutional.
The opposition parties PO, PSL and Modern Poland believe that the President should swear in the three judges who were constitutionally elected, a solution which has also been proposed by the Tribunal’s President TK Andrzej Rzepliński.
Last week thousands of people protested in over 20 cities across the country, and the conflict has attracted international interest including from President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, who said the government’s actions resemble a “coup d' état”.
Meanwhile the Constitutional Tribunal has been asked by PO to consider parliament’s decision to revoke all of the original five elected judges, including the validly elected ones. According to the President and PiS, such an investigation would be outside the remit of the Tribunal.
Government defends “necessary” changes
PiS have defended its actions towards the Constitutional Tribunal, claiming that their opponents want to prevent them from introducing major changes such as a proposed new child benefit of PLN 500 (EUR 118).
“Nobody is carrying out any sort of attack on the Tribunal. There is a new bill on the Constitutional Tribunal, let's give it a chance, let it come into force,” the Prime Minister commented.
The chairman of PiS and former Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński had earlier said that the changes will end the “previous crony system”, although he attracted significant criticism over calling his opponents “Poles of the worst kind”. (sl/rg)
Source: PAP