Nawrocki hands out dozens of judicial appointments: only those sworn in before the president become judges

On Monday at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Karol Nawrocki handed several dozen appointments to judges of district and regional courts and of voivodeship administrative courts, and accepted the oath of a group of judges and assessors, RMF24 reports.

«There is no other mechanism to become a judge than to take the oath before the president, that is, in his presence», the president said. In his words, today this group officially became judges «because the president elected by the will of the nation decided so». He added that since 1989 thousands of judges have taken the oath in the president's presence and stressed that the Polish constitution does not refer to rulings of international tribunals or opinions of foreign commissions.

The speech concerned the dispute over accepting the oath of Constitutional Tribunal judges and the opinion of the Venice Commission. The commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe, stated in an opinion published last week that the president should promptly accept the oath of tribunal judges elected by the Sejm without claiming the right to review the election procedure. If the president refuses or delays, the commission recommends allowing the oath to be taken without his physical participation.