MAIN POINTS
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On November 12, 2025, the President of the Republic of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, refused to appoint 46 judges recommended by the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), citing as justification that they had questioned the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland, in particular by undermining the status of judges appointed after the judicial reform carried out by the Law and Justice government in 2017.
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On this occasion, President Nawrocki cited several recent rulings in which, on appeal, the first-instance court’s judgment was vacated solely because a judge appointed since 2018 sat on the panel. After one of these rulings, the Minister of Justice, Waldemar Żurek, called on judges appointed since 2018 to stop adjudicating.
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Minister Żurek criticized the President’s decision to refuse to appoint judges, suggesting that it should be reviewed by an administrative court. However, the Minister’s position is decidedly at odds with the case law of Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) and Constitutional Tribunal (TK), which emphasize the significant implications of the fact that appointing judges is the President’s constitutional prerogative.
The day before yesterday (November 12), the President of the Republic of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, announced that he refuses to appoint 46 judges who were presented to the President in motions by the National Council of the Judiciary. The president did not hide the motives for this decision:
This is no longer just a verbal signal, but a concrete decision not to grant a nomination—and I will also not grant promotions to those judges who question the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Poland. To those judges who heed the insidious whispers of the Minister of Justice, Mr. Waldemar Żurek, who encourages judges to question the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Poland.
In other words, the President, consistent with his earlier declarations made upon taking office, did not appoint those judges who allowed themselves to be drawn into the political dispute concerning the status of judges appointed after March 6, 2018, thereby, acting without a legal basis, treating the judgments of those judges as null and void.
The President emphasized that such action is by no means merely an abstract, academic dispute about constitutional arrangements, but, on the contrary:
Today this also affects the lives of our citizens, ordinary people who cannot obtain a court judgment that is fair and in accordance with Polish law.
Recent rulings and related attempts by Minister Żurek to pressure judges of the ordinary courts
The President cited specific cases of recent high-profile rulings in which the lower court’s judgment was vacated and the case was remanded for reconsideration solely because the panel of that court included a judge appointed in 2018 or later. Specifically:
- the case of overturning the life sentence for a murderer from Puszczykowo near Poznań, who murdered his wife and two daughters;
- the case of a man from Kołobrzeg who took the lives of three women;
- the case of a pedophile from Poznań who raped a fourteen-year-old girl.
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Source of cover photo: iStock
