Resistance from many organisations
Nine social organizations, including the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the Institute of Public Affairs, the Civic improvement Forum, the Panoptycon Foundation, the Ludwika and Henryk Wujców civilian Foundation, the Stefan Batory Foundation, the Freedom Foundation, the Better Democracy and the Watchdog Polish civilian Network, signed the appeal concerning the candidacy of Maciej Berk as a justice of the Constitutional Court.
Signatories of the letter indicate that the notification of Berk to the Constitutional Tribunal may undermine the credibility of the process of restoring the regulation of law and give emergence to doubts as to further efforts to improvement the constitutional judiciary in Poland.
Organisations have besides pointed out that despite the presidential veto against the Constitutional Court Act, the Sejm should, in their opinion, follow standards enshrined in veto regulations. The Act provided, among others, that persons with circumstantial political functions could not be elected to the Constitutional Tribunal for 4 years after the end of these functions.
At the same time, the appeal's authors pointed out that they do not undermine Maciej Berk's legal qualifications or accuse him of being dishonest. Their concerns stem primarily from his political function to date. As they point out, just before the candidacy application he held a position of a clear political character, and the Prime Minister referred to it as his "right hand". According to the signatories, this makes it possible, even with the full independency of Berk as a judge, for a part of society to take its choice as another step towards politicising the Constitutional Court.
Prof. Dudek: ‘Horrendal move’
On Thursday, prof. Antoni Dudek, a lecturer at the UKSW and a commentator on the Polish political scene commented on the issue on Polsat News.
This is simply a totally horrendous decision that crosses all that Donald Tusk has claimed in the Court case so far. – assessed during the interview.
Prof. Antoni Dudek added that so far the allegations concerning the politicization and stubbornness of the Constitutional Tribunal were directed primarily towards the erstwhile authority. In his opinion, however, it is hard to talk about depoliticizing the TK if a close associate of Donald Tusk was elected as a judge. Historian besides stated that the anticipation that Maciej Berek as a associate of the TK would contribute to the recovery of the situation at the Court is, in his opinion, “absurd”. According to Dudek, specified a candidacy may even lead to a mockery of the full process.
Of course, there's a group of fanatical supporters of Prime Minister Donald Tusk who have been hating me for days since I started criticizing the decision with Berk. said Prof. Dudek. – But I am curious in not those fanatic supporters who contribute to polarization as much as the fanatic supporters of Jarosław Kaczyński. I'm curious in the part that can look critically at the case, and I realize what Donald Tusk did. He crossed out the full line of his organization as far as the constitutional judiciary is concerned.
Who's Maciej Berek?
Maciej Berek has been a minister-member of the Council of Ministers and head of the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers since December 2023. In March 2025 he took over the leadership of the government's deregulation team, and a fewer months later, due to the reconstruction of the government, he became Minister of Supervision for the implementation of government policy.
He had previously held positions in state institutions for years. From 2007 to 2015, he headed the Government Legislative Centre, and was besides the Secretary of the Council of Ministers. He besides worked at the Office of the Ombudsman and the ultimate Chamber of Control, as well as headed the legislature Information Centre.
Berek is simply a legal advisor and doctor of legal science. He works as an assistant prof. at the Faculty of Constitutional Law of the University of Warsaw and is an expert at the Centre for Research, Studies and Legislative of the National Council of Legal Advisors.
