On Dec. 1, Professor Ewa Łętowska warned that Poland’s conflict between President Karol Nawrocki and the government could not be settled by court or law.
Law Will Not Resolve the Dispute
During her appearance on TVN24’s “Faktach po Faktach” on Monday, 1 December, Professor Łętowska said that the current clash “is a stage of drawing forces between two executive units.” She asserted that the disagreement between the president and the government “cannot be resolved through legal means” and that each side insists it is operating within its competences, refusing to cooperate. She concluded that “law will not help.”
Supreme Administrative Court Could Address the Issue
Łętowska argued that the Supreme Administrative Court should be called upon to examine the president’s refusal to sign officer nominations for the 136 personnel of the Military Counterintelligence Service (SKW) and the Internal Security Agency (ABW). She said that if she were in the position to test the limits of the law, she would have used the administrative court “much more energetically” than has been done before, clarifying which presidential acts fall under court scrutiny and which do not.
President’s Competencies Are Mixed
The professor noted that the constitution allows the president to refuse appointments, though such a refusal must be justified. She emphasized that “the president’s competencies have a heterogeneous character”: some actions stem from his role as a representative organ distinct from other executive bodies, while others are administrative in nature and, in effect, administrative decisions.
Minister Accuses Nawrocki of Damaging Security System
Special services coordinator Tomasz Siemoniak condemned President Nawrocki’s refusal to sign officer nominations for ABW and SKW as “a blow to the state’s security system” and “a strike on people who want to serve Poland.” He added on X that mobilizing chiefs of services subordinate to the prime minister for talks with the president and blocking promotions to first officer rank “does absolutely not serve the state.” Siemoniak cited Nawrocki’s earlier claim that Prime Minister Donald Tusk had forbidden heads of services from meeting the president.