Duda will keep his promise. Further laws will be submitted to the Constitutional Tribunal
Two bills reached the president’s desk and were signed. It was noted that Andrzej Duda did not send them to the Constitutional Tribunal, as he announced. Minister Paprocka from the Chancellery of the President was asked to comment on this matter.
According to the president’s press team, on February 19 he signed two laws: amending the law on the National Center for Research and Development and the law on higher education and science and amending the law on assistance to citizens of Ukraine in connection with an armed conflict on the territory of this country, the law on personal income tax and the corporate income tax act.
Then, the media and journalists noticed that the laws had not been referred to the Constitutional Tribunal to examine their compliance with the Constitution.
The laws have not yet been referred to the Constitutional Tribunal, despite assurances
At the end of January, Andrzej Duda announced that he would deal with every bill in this way.
At that time, it was about three acts signed by him: the budget for 2024, on special solutions for the implementation of the Budget Act for 2024 and amending the Act – Provisions introducing the Act – Law on Higher Education and Science and the Act – Law on Higher Education and Science.
“Due to doubts related to the correctness of the procedure for adopting laws, i.e. the inability of MPs Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik to participate in the work of the Sejm on these laws, the President decided to refer the above laws, in the mode of post-control, to the Constitutional Tribunal to examine their compliance with Constitution,” the Chancellery of the President informed.
Paprocka explains the reason
The Chancellery then added that “similar actions will be taken by the President of the Republic of Poland each time Members of Parliament are prevented from exercising their mandate resulting from general elections.” “It should be emphasized that the issue of expiry of mandates was clearly decided by the Supreme Court. Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik are members of the Sejm” – this is a position maintained by President Duda from the moment the debate began whether the parliamentary mandates of the former ministers had expired or not.
In an interview with the Polish Press Agency on February 20, Minister Małgorzata Paprocka said that the president would refer the laws to the Constitutional Tribunal “due to the procedure and composition of the Sejm”. She added that she still had the same opinion about the mandates of Kamiński and Wąsik.
“She emphasized that the follow-up procedure is possible only after the signed acts are published in the Journal of Laws” – and this has not happened yet.
