Sejm appoints five new Constitutional Tribunal Judges

The Sejm, the lower chamber of parliament, has voted in five new Constitutional Tribunal judges presented by Law and Justice. The vote was a follow-up to last week's session, during which the Sejm, with votes from PiS and Kukiz'15, canceled the appointment of five Constitutional Tribunal judges who were chosen by the previous parliament in October. PiS argued that two of them had been nominated prematurely to replace judges whose terms were due to end in December. Wednesday's debate saw vehement protests from the opposition who accused PiS of violating the constitution. “This is not something that we got as a present. We had to fight for this,” said Henryka Krzywonos, a legendary figure of the Solidarity movement, while waving a copy of the Constitution. According to the opposition and many constitutionalists, PiS wasn't authorized to cancel the nomination of the judges. They argue that the only body able to do so is the  Constitutional Tribunal. However, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński claimed that “the Constitutional Tribunal in today’s reality is an organ of the party (of Civic Platform)...This is not acceptable and is why it had to be changed.” The five new judges appointed on Wednesday are Henryk Cioch, Lech Morawski, Mariusz Muszyński, Julia Przyłębska, and Piotr Pszczółkowski. They were sworn in by the president on Wednesday night.