Sejm appoints five new Constitutional Tribunal

The Sejm, the lower chamber of parliament, voted in five new Constitutional Tribunal judges presented by the Law and Justice. The voting was a follow-up to last week's session, in 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 June. Pis argued that two of them were nominated prematurely to replace judges, whose terms were due to end in December. The Wednesday's debate saw vehement protests from the opposition accusing PiS of breaking 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 waiving the 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. But 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 at Wednesday night.