There are two aspects here. The first point is the ruling coalition and whether the only unifying factor can be anti-PiS, hatred, hatred for the Law and Justice Party. After all, that’s what united the groups that formed this October revolutionary coalition

— Beata Szydło, former prime minister and PiS MEP, said on air on Telewizja wPolsce.

Former Prime Minister of the Law and Justice (PiS) government Beata Szydło, in an interview with Dorota Łosiewicz and Marcin Wikło, commented on Monika Pawłowska’s controversial acceptance of a parliamentary seat.

It is obvious that Ms. Monika Pawlowska cannot become an MP, as there are currently 461 parliamentarians in the Polish Parliament. Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik are MPs. All this confusion is the result of the actions of, first of all, Speaker Holownia, but also, and let’s not hide it, of the coalition that is currently in power, which wants to create chaos at all costs, and it was decided that in this way it would be a blow to the Law and Justice Party if there was an attempt to take away the mandate of Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wąsik. Ms. Pawlowska is not an MP, so she will not be a member of the Law and Justice club. I think this is perfectly clear to all groups, because the statements of parliamentarians who deny that Ms. Pawlowska should be admitted to any parliamentary club, clearly shows that they know perfectly well that this is a mandate that does not exist

— Szydło stated on air of Telewizja wPolsce.

Pawlowska’s case

The Law and Justice MEP was asked whether the case of Monika Pawłowska is not some kind of lesson for politicians. Her political path indicates that this is a politician who can be trouble.

I am in favour of being faithful to the grouping that one ran from, and to remember that the mandate of an MP, if one is elected to parliament, is first and foremost a commitment that one has to the voters. If one runs from a given list and therefore promotes the program that the party forming the list has prepared, and declares to the voters that this is what he or she will implement, then one is obliged to do so to the letter and fulfil this mandate. I am sorry to say that there is a group of politicians in the Polish Parliament who practice party tourism and think that it is possible to run from one list and then for conjunctural reasons be a member of another grouping or another parliamentary club. Voters should draw conclusions from this and not put their trust in such a politician any more

— Beata Szydło stated.

Constitutional reset

The former prime minister referred to the ideas increasingly being raised about carrying out a constitutional reset. She suggested that legal acts passed in the Parliament with the participation of Monika Pawlowska, and earlier without the participation of Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wąsik, may be subject to a legal flaw.

Everything points to the fact that these legal acts will be legally flawed, because the Constitution clearly indicates that the Polish Parliament counts 460, not 461 deputies, so this will also probably be a task for constitutionalists, for experts. We’ll see if they’ll even be willing to address this issue. It is apparent that this ruling majority, which is making such decisions at the moment, does not take into account the law and the Constitution.

After all, the takeover of the public media and the changes in the prosecutor’s office and all of these other actions that were carried out took place in disregard of the laws, of the Constitution. Trying to change statutory regulations with resolutions is an unprecedented thing

— she explained.

As you can see, there is consent to this, and even with some pretty disarming candour, the Minister of Justice is saying that he will seek a legal basis for what we are currently doing. An unprecedented thing, but this is actually happening in Poland. The question is, of course, what we can do about it. It is impossible to function like this any longer, because it poses a threat to the stability of the functioning of the state. In my opinion, changing the constitution is not possible at the moment, but such a debate would probably be necessary, and we should consider the situation on the Polish political scene in general, how to break out of this deadlock and the chaos that the current ruling coalition has created. It’s apparent that this is a tactic; they very often like to refer to themselves as the October 15 coalition. I would say that they are the October Revolution. It’s hardly possible at this point to expect to be able to talk pragmatically and reasonably and substantively with this majority, because they don’t want that

— Szydło added.

According to Beata Szydło, the laws passed so far should go to the Constitutional Court (TK) , since we temporarily did not have two MPs, and now we have one too many.

The TK is the appropriate institution to determine whether these laws passed without the presence of two of our colleagues when they were arrested, or now that the 461st member of the Polish parliament is joining, whether they comply with the Constitution. I am afraid that the current government, which has announced that it is going to try to undermine the functioning of the TK in its current composition, will try to say that these TK decisions are irrelevant, invalid, and will continue to do what it does. If even the decisions of the TK are recognized by Tusk and his team, and it turns out that the TK finds that the law adopted so far in the Polish Parliament is flawed, then we will be faced with a massive institutional chaos of the Polish state

— she assessed.

According to Beata Szydło, the laws passed so far should go to the Constitutional Court (TK) , since we temporarily did not have two MPs, and now we have one too many.

The TK is the appropriate institution to determine whether these laws passed without the presence of two of our colleagues when they were arrested, or now that the 461st member of the Polish parliament is joining, whether they comply with the Constitution. I am afraid that the current government, which has announced that it is going to try to undermine the functioning of the TK in its current composition, will try to say that these TK decisions are irrelevant, invalid, and will continue to do what it does. If even the decisions of the TK are recognized by Tusk and his team, and it turns out that the TK finds that the law adopted so far in the Polish Parliament is flawed, then we will be faced with a massive institutional chaos of the Polish state

— she assessed.

„Closing the judicial system”.

A government draft on the KRS (National Court Register) has been sent to parliament, according to which judges are to be elected again by judges. This is expected to pave the way for Poland to receive funds from the KPO (National Reconstruction Plan), as an application for this has already been submitted.

First of all, this is very bad news for all Poles because at the moment we are returning to a model in which the judicial caste will actually decide for itself. Again, we have a closing of the judicial system, and after all, those changes that were introduced so that the KRS would be elected by the Parliament - and all parliamentary groups are represented in the KRS - this was supposed to safeguard against a situation in which judges decide for themselves. This model worked well. At the moment, however, it’s clear that we’re moving toward what we had before. This, of course, is to the liking of the Brussels institutions as well, because the requirements set by Brussels when it comes to the issue of the judiciary, and are a condition for fulfilling the KPO, were an attempt to pressurize and meddle in Polish affairs completely illegally, because the treaties very clearly state that when it comes to the judiciary it is the competence of member states

— Beata Szydło stressed.

On the EU’s leash

According to her, EU Commissioner Reynders was hinting at solutions to Justice Minister Adam Bodnar.

It was a sad picture. This is what it looked like, as if Minister Bodnar was being supervised by the Commissioner and his colleagues, so that - God forbid - he would say something that Brussels would disagree with. This is not consistent with the treaties because, as I mentioned earlier, the judiciary, matters related to the judiciary are within the competence of the member states, We just have to be aware that Brussels is becoming less and less respectful of the treaties. Last year, Chancellor Scholz, in his speech in the EP, said very bluntly that the right of veto must be abolished even if it is incompatible with the treaties. This philosophy applies both to the competencies of the EC or EP and the member states, as well as to a number of other actions taken in Brussels. Anyway, the work on amending the treaties is underway. In fact, this is a liquidation of all the rules that have been in place so far and an attempt to subordinate the decisions that are made in Brussels, Strasbourg, primarily to the interests of Germany and the Brussels establishment

— the former prime minister pointed out.

The CJEU ruled on the status of judges and said that the status of a judge cannot be denied. However, Szydło noted that none of those in power in Poland want to obey this ruling.

This governing coalition and the judicial, legal circles that support them recognize only what is convenient for them. If an opinion is contrary to current political needs, it is simply passed over in silence, or considered invalid. Unfortunately, this is the system we have in Poland at the moment, which tolerates and recognizes only what serves the goals of those in power

— she explained.

Political hatred

Beata Szydło also commented on information about the escalating Internet hatred, which, as indicated by a publication by Wirtualna Polska, was said to be lavishly rewarded by PO.

I hope that hatred will not prevail in politics. Considering this information about the latest hater and the earlier ones, and I think there were many more of these PO haters, it is appalling and outrageous. The subsidy that every political grouping receives is public money, it is spent on hate speech. It is important to remember that hate speech is an action that leads to many tragic situations, builds aggression, hatred, and division of society.

Tusk has perfectly mastered such a method of governing, supported these haters; their actions translated into promoting PO and its acolytes. It led to the point that today the situation is deteriorating and we should all start thinking what to do about it. The PO was not only supported by social media haters, but all those demonstrations that took place against the Law and Justice government, the monstrous slogans that were used at the time, the behaviour of those people - it was exactly this kind of hatred. Many of our colleagues suffered all kinds of acts of hatred that people from the PO organized. This is an unprecedented thing. I, however, would like Polish politics to be carried out in a different way, so that we would talk in a substantive way

— she announced.

The hosts of the program noted that the support bars clearly indicate that PO voters seem to enjoy this form of political activity by their party.

There are two aspects here. The first point is the ruling coalition and whether the only unifying factor can be anti-PiS, hatred, hatred for the Law and Justice Party. After all, that’s what united the groups that formed this October revolutionary coalition. There is no substantive action there. Besides, everything that is happening at the moment as far as the government in Poland is concerned shows very clearly what the plan is. We’re organizing investigative commissions, we’re looking for scandals, in other words, we’re going after PiS politicians - let our voters rejoice, because that was our main message. Tusk isn’t even concealing it, because he says he had some kind of plan of a hundred specifics for a hundred days, and he named further investigative commissions to track down alleged scandals

— Beata Szydło stressed.

Tłum. K.J.