Poland’s ruling centrist coalition government began work on March 6 on legislation and other parliamentary acts seeking to undo changes in the country’s judiciary made by the previous government of the radical right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party .

The Donald Tusk-led government plans to pass a law overhauling the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), a judge-appointing body that is key to the entire court system in Poland. PiS had illegally engineered the KRS to make it politically obedient, the incumbent coalition claims. 

The illegal status of the KRS, the current government says, has created a fundamental problem of legally dubious judge nominations that provide grounds to undermine any court decision that involved judges nominated by the KRS.

The government is also pushing for the adoption of a resolution to “remove the effects of the constitutional crisis of the years 2015-2023”.

The proposed text of the resolution states that the current line-up of the Constitutional Tribunal, a top court, was largely composed with “flagrant violation of the law”, while the tribunal’s head, Julia Przylebska, is “unauthorised” to lead it. 

A series of draft laws concerning the tribunal is expected to follow the resolution – which is only declaratory – in the coming weeks.

PiS’ tinkering with the judiciary met stiff opposition from the European Commission, which – backed by several judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights – eventually suspended payouts to Poland from the bloc’s pandemic recovery fund and from the cohesion funds’ pool. The Commission has said that the payouts would be unblocked once Poland restores the rule of law, which was compromised by PiS.

The Tusk government took over power in mid-December, promising to restore the rule of law, a tall order as long as President Andrzej Duda, a stalwart ally of PiS, remains in office. Duda is widely expected to block any legislation undoing PiS’ judiciary reforms, with the Tusk government lacking a majority to override it. 

There is a presidential election in May 2025 that could give the ruling camp a full grip on power until 2027, the year of the next general election.