Poland’s ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) questioned on March 2 the legality of the nomination of the chief judge on the Supreme Court.

Raising the issue suggests the government may be preparing for a new confrontation with the judiciary. PiS brought Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) under its control last year, a move that sparked an ongoing probe by the European Commission over Warsaw’s adherence to the rule of law. Poland dismisses the commission’s criticism and claims it has restored order to the TK.

PiS is now taking advantage of its control. The party has asked the tribunal to rule whether the appointment of Malgorzata Gersdorf as the first president of the Supreme Court was constitutional, MP Arkadiusz Mularczyk told a news conference.

The request is linked to Gersdorf’s criticism of PiS last week. The judge claimed in the media that the party is looking to increase its control of Polish courts via the appointment of loyalists.

“If the first president of the Supreme Court is wearing the costume of a defender of the rule of law in Poland, we want to be sure that the rules on the basis of which she was appointed are constitutional,” Mularczyk said.

PiS notes Gersdorf's appointment in 2014 by Bronislaw Komorowski - the former president from the now opposition PO party - was based on the Supreme Court’s internal rules. As those are not a published document, the appointment lacks transparency, the party claims.