Borys Budka, the head of KO's parliamentary caucus, spoke as four members of opposition groupings were nominated to join the National Judicial Council (KRS) during the first sitting of the Sejm, the lower house of the new parliament, on Tuesday.
Tomasz Gzell/PAP

A senior member of Civic Coalition (KO), the largest opposition grouping, has said that the new parliament has started the “healing process” of a key judicial body which, he claimed, had become an “annex” of the outgoing government.

Borys Budka, the head of KO’s parliamentary caucus, spoke as four members of opposition groupings were nominated to join the National Judicial Council (KRS) during the first sitting of the Sejm, the lower house of the new parliament, on Tuesday.

The KRS is the body constitutionally tasked with nominating judges to Polish courts.

The now acting Law and Justice (PiS) government introduced changes to the body under which its members, which had previously been elected by the judges themselves, were nominated by politicians.

This prompted accusations that the KRS had fallen under the political influence of the government.

The allegation gained weight when the Supreme Court ruled that the KRS was no longer an impartial and constitutional body, and that judges nominated after 2018 were appointed illegally.

An alliance of opposition parties that won a parliamentary majority in October’s general election, and looks set to form the next government, has vowed to reverse some of the changes made by PiS during its eight-year rule.

Budka spoke of the “blatant violation of the law” by the previous Sejm majority in relation to law making and the judiciary.

The Sejm, he added, is now “beginning the process of healing a constitutional body such as the KRS.”

Budka also said that the appointment of the four MPs is the first step to achieving this and the next one will be to “remove the defects in the composition” of the KRS.

According to Budka, the KRS was supposed to uphold judicial independence but had “become an annex of the now – fortunately – outgoing government and has become a springboard for the careers of people who have disgraced the judges’ robes and disgraced the emblem of Poland.”