Government Crisis and Constitutional Issues

The government's actions last Friday, the government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, have brought us together today in circumstances never seen before, in an unprecedented situation, amid a serious crisis of constitutional proportions. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, we cannot simply look the other way today.

In a situation where the most serious allegations are justified concerning the illegality of the actions taken by the government against the Constitutional Tribunal.

On Friday, the thirtieth of October, there was an unprecedented situation in the Third Polish Republic after nineteen eighty-nine. By political decision, the government decided to unlawfully seize the Constitutional Tribunal.

They tried to do so by taking advantage of my absence from Poland. That is why, as you know, I cut my trip short abroad and returned to Warsaw.

I decided, ladies and gentlemen, that it was my duty to be in the country at a time of such serious threat to the stability of Poland’s legal order. The government chose the night before an important day for Poles, All Saints’ Day, to bring into the Tribunal people who consider themselves judges of the Constitutional

Tribunal, though under the law they are not those judges. That is what I told those people on Friday night. These people, under police escort, claim the right to suspend judges and take over their duties, acting without any legal basis.

This position, and I also want this to be heard, is confirmed unanimously by the First President of the Supreme Court, the President of the Supreme Administrative Court, and the President of the National Council of of the Bar Association. Many experts in the field of constitutional law as well

firmly confirm that there are no grounds for the actions taken Worst of all, ladies and gentlemen, all this was done by using police officers and State Protection Service officers as tools.

I have just met with the police unions. There is no doubt that police officers know that they were used as tools to carry out a political scenario, which is very concerning. I turn to the Minister of the Interior, ladies and gentlemen.

In Poland, mechanisms of mutual checks and balances still exist.

This is, of course, the review of the constitutionality of enacted laws, an independent judiciary, as well as the presidential veto and parliamentary accountability of the government. These institutions, of course, serve different purposes. functions, but they serve one fundamental principle:

no power can be unlimited. These mechanisms are not an obstacle to democracy, they are a safeguard, and that is why they must never be subordinated to an immediate political need. The rule of law, ladies and gentlemen, however each of us understands it, and the rule of law cannot be restored

using methods that themselves flagrantly violate the law. I described these government actions, ladies and gentlemen, before the start of the main debate, so that we would all be aware of the constitutional position we find ourselves in. However, one cannot fail to identify the person responsible for this whole situation.

Full responsibility for every police officer at the Tribunal, for all illegal actions, such as the suspension of judges, illegal orders, entering the Tribunal from the side Responsibility for the Prime Minister's Office rests with one man.

A man who is present in this chamber, and whom I smile at, though I don't understand his actions, don't accept them, and oppose them, and that man is Prime Minister Donald Tusk. And, Prime Minister, in your case, in my view, this is not just a crime against the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

It's something more. It's a mistake. The Prime Minister already knows he made a mistake, and we both also know that today, your former allies were no longer by your side, and all you have left is violence, which is equally troubling.

To make his ideological fiction a reality, the Prime Minister is damaging Poland's image abroad, which is also the subject of public debate in various parts of the world.

He is driving away investors, undermining the foundations of social bonds and of public trust. When people can't get to a doctor, fuel prices at gas stations are unacceptable, even though my, my signature on the bill was supposed to create a situation in which these prices would be appropriate. That didn't happen.

These prices still aren't appropriate, when the debt reaches record levels that threaten the stability of the state, the prime minister decides, on the eve of the holiday, to forcibly take over an independent state institution of Poland. That's not how democrats act, honorable Mr. Prime Minister. I want to tell the prime minister and

everyone here today at the National Security Council that, of course, I won't just let this pass without objection.

I'll use all the prerogatives available to me, as well as the legitimacy and mandate given to me by society to stop this attempt to overthrow the order of the Republic's Constitution.

Mercy, of course, calls for forgiveness.

I am a merciful man, but, of course, before forgiveness, ladies and gentlemen, one must confess one's sins, and one must also repent, and one must retract those images which, because of the prime minister, the whole world saw. I expect the prime minister, Your Excellency,

Mr. Prime Minister, to come to his senses, make amends, and return matters concerning Poland to the Polish people. Our Independence Day is ahead of us. I expect that before then, before the start of the week in which we, as a nation, will celebrate together, you, Mr. Prime Minister, will be ready to rein in your government's ambitions and

put an end to the illegal actions of your representatives in the building of the Constitutional Tribunal.