波兰宪法法庭本应体现民主稳定，但在过去十年里却一直是民粹主义者与自由派之间斗争的战场。最新的冲突看起来像是一场全面爆发的宪法危机。10月30日晚，一群由今年议会选出、但遭到该国总统拒绝为其宣誓就职的法官，在防暴警察的戒备下走进了法院大楼。其中一位法官安娜·科尔温-皮奥特罗夫斯卡（Anna Korwin-Piotrowska）表示，她以妨碍法院运作为由，宣布将法院院长博格丹·希维奇科夫斯基（Bogdan Swieczkowski）及其副手停职30天。她称自己将接任院长职务。
POLAND’S Constitutional Tribunal is supposed to embody democratic stability, but has spent the past decade as a battleground for fights between populists and liberals. The latest conflict looks like a full-blown constitutional crisis. On the evening of October 30th a group of judges picked by parliament this year, but whom the country’s president has refused to swear in, strode into the court building while riot police secured the grounds. One of the judges, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, said that she was suspending the court’s president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and his deputy for 30 days on grounds of obstructing the court’s functioning. She said she would assume the presidency herself.
这一场景迅速演变成多年来波兰政治特有的那种有失体面的对峙。数百名抗议者聚集在法院外，其中包括一名身穿中世纪波兰骠骑兵盔甲和木质翅膀的人。希维奇科夫斯基和反对派领导人指责唐纳德·图斯克（Donald Tusk）发动政变。卡罗尔·纳夫罗茨基（Karol Nawrocki）作为该国总统以及和希维奇科夫斯基一样的民粹右翼政党法律与公正党（PiS）的盟友，当时正在前往塞内加尔的途中。
The scene quickly devolved into the sort of undignified standoff that has typified Polish politics for years. Several hundred protesters gathered outside the court, including someone wearing the armour and wooden wings of a medieval Polish hussar. Mr Swieczkowski and opposition leaders accused Donald Tusk, the prime minister, of staging a coup. Karol Nawrocki, the country’s president and, like Mr Swieczkowski, an ally of the populist-right Law and Justice (PiS) party, had been en route to Senegal.
他调转专机返回华沙，随后他与其随行人员强行闯入大楼，将科尔温-皮奥特罗夫斯卡推开。局势目前仍处于僵局。一场摊牌即将在11月3日上演，届时科尔温-皮奥特罗夫斯卡将召集法院法官通过预算。
He turned his plane around and returned to Warsaw, where he and his entourage forced their way into the building, pushing Ms Korwin-Piotrowska out of the way. The situation remains at an impasse. A showdown awaits on November 3rd, when Ms Korwin-Piotrowska will convene the court’s judges to adopt its budget.
图斯克及其公民纲领党认为，安排这些法官就职的举动是恢复法治努力的一部分，法治在法律与公正党八年执政期间遭到严重破坏。民粹主义者在2015年上台时，曾试图对该国的司法系统进行政治控制。他们拒绝让前政府任命的五名宪法法庭法官就职，而是指派了他们自己的法官。围绕司法系统的冲突不断升级，导致欧盟扣留了价值数十亿欧元的对波兰资金援助。经过多年的争端，欧盟最高司法机构欧洲法院最终裁定法律与公正党替换法官的做法非法的，并停止承认该法庭的裁决。
Mr Tusk and his Civic Platform party see the move to seat the judges as part of an effort to restore the rule of law, which was severely degraded under PiS’s eight-year-rule. On taking office in 2015 the populists tried to take political control over the country’s judiciary. They refused to seat five judges appointed to the Constitutional Tribunal by the previous government and instead named judges of their own. Mounting conflicts over the judiciary led the European Union to withhold billions of euros’ worth of funds from Poland. After years of disputes the EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice, eventually ruled PiS’s substitution of judges illegal and stopped recognising the tribunal’s decisions.
当图斯克于2023年重返权力巅峰时，他和他的政府首先试图改革法庭，但遭到纳夫罗茨基的前任（同样是法律与公正党盟友）的阻挠。此后，随着法庭出现空缺，他们一直在提名新法官。总统在任命法庭法官方面没有宪法规定的角色。但纳夫罗茨基利用一个漏洞将其中五人拒之门外：波兰法律要求新法庭法官在总统面前宣誓就职。纳夫罗茨基一直拒绝出席法官的宣誓就职仪式，并称这意味着他们不具备合法性。希维奇科夫斯基禁止他们审理案件，法庭已经陷入瘫痪。
When he returned to power in 2023 Mr Tusk and his government first tried to reform the tribunal, but were blocked by Mr Nawrocki’s predecessor, also a PiS ally. Since then they have been nominating new judges as vacancies on the court arise. The president has no constitutional role in appointing judges to the tribunal. But Mr Nawrocki has kept five of them out using a loophole: Polish law requires new tribunal judges to take their oath of office before the president. Mr Nawrocki has refused to attend the judges’ swearing-in ceremony, and says this means they are not legitimate. Mr Swieczkowski has barred them from hearing cases, and the tribunal has been paralysed.
欧洲法律权威机构威尼斯委员会（Venice Commission）已裁定，总统在法官宣誓就职过程中的作用纯属礼仪性质，纳夫罗茨基是在滥用这一权力。波兰总统对其封锁行为给出了混乱的理由，但普遍认为这是出于政治动机。他反对9月被任命进入法院的马切伊·贝雷克（Maciej Berek），因为他直到今年早些时候还在图斯克政府中担任部长。贝雷克是一位受人尊敬的律师，且没有规定禁止任命前政府官员：法律与公正党在执政期间曾任命数人进入法庭，其中包括曾任副司法部长的希维奇科夫斯基。
The Venice Commission, a European legal authority, has ruled that the president’s role in swearing in judges is ceremonial and that Mr Nawrocki is misusing it. Poland’s president offers confusing rationales for his blockade, but it is widely understood to be political. He objects to Maciej Berek, named to the court in September, because he served as a minister in Mr Tusk’s government until earlier this year. Mr Berek is a respected lawyer, and there is no rule against appointing former government officials: PiS named several to the tribunal while it was in power, including Mr Swieczkowski, who had served as deputy justice minister.
但选择图斯克曾描述为自己“得力助手”的贝雷克，是一个挑衅性的举动。这显然不符合他将法院去政治化的竞选承诺。而强行安插其政府挑选的法官看起来更像是一个政治噱头。议会选举定于明年举行，图斯克似乎正试图向那些因他未能将法律与公正党的任命人员根除出系统而感到失望的支持者证明，他正在采取行动。
But picking Mr Berek, whom Mr Tusk once described as his “right-hand man”, was a provocative move. It was hardly in keeping with his campaign promises to depoliticise the court. And forcibly installing the judges his government has picked looks like a political stunt. Parliamentary elections are due next year, and Mr Tusk seems to be trying to show his supporters, who have been disappointed by his failure to root PiS’s appointees out of the system, that he is doing something.
图斯克在10月31日晚的全国电视讲话中为自己的举动进行了辩护，称尽管受到法律与公正党的阻挠，但政府一直“耐心地等待”，并且国家需要一个“有能力执行正义”的国家。但他可能正在失去舆论战。当晚，纳夫罗茨基会见了五个政党的领导人，讨论解决危机的途径，其中包括两个作为图斯克执政联盟成员的中间派团体。几位领导人表示，他们希望进行“宪法重置”，这是一个含糊的方案，可能需要同时替换法庭的所有法官。
Mr Tusk defended his move in an address to the nation on the night of October 31st, saying the government had “waited patiently” despite PiS’s obstructionism, and that the country needed a state “capable of enforcing justice”. But he may be losing the battle for public opinion. On the same evening Mr Nawrocki met leaders of five parties to discuss ways to resolve the crisis, including two centrist groups that are members of Mr Tusk’s ruling coalition. Several said they wanted a “constitutional reset”, a vague formula that might entail replacing all of the tribunal’s judges at once.
*危机对法律与公正党来说是一大福音。自2023年以来，民粹主义者一直在向两个极右翼竞争政党——自由与独立联盟（Konfederacja）和王室党（Korona）——流失选民。8月，由前总理马泰乌什·莫拉维茨基（Mateusz Morawiecki）率领的40名议员脱离法律与公正党，组建了一个更为温和的政党“发展加号”（Development Plus）。这场围绕法院的对峙给了法律与公正党一个领导反击图斯克并恢复其作为该国主要反对党地位的机会。
The crisis is a boon for PiS. Since 2023 the populists have been shedding voters to two far-right rival parties, Konfederacja and Korona. In August 40 MPs headed by Mateusz Morawiecki, a former prime minister, abandoned PiS to form a more moderate party, Development Plus. The standoff over the court gives PiS a chance to lead the charge against Mr Tusk and recover its standing as the country’s main opposition.
这似乎是图斯克的一个失误。将他推上权力宝座的自由派联盟源于一场恢复宪法统治的长期运动。那场斗争的老兵对亲法律与公正党的法庭没有什么好感。但许多人认为，动用警察权力罢免其领导层的做法是不可接受的。宪法学者马尔辛·马特恰克（Marcin Matczak）在对抗当晚在X上写道：“希维奇科夫斯基是‘担任宪法法院院长最糟糕的人选，但没有任何法律依据可以将他[停职]。’‘你不能用武力恢复法治。’”■
It seems to have been a mistake by Mr Tusk. The liberal coalition that brought him to power grew out of a long campaign to restore constitutional rule. Veterans of that fight have little love for the PiS-aligned tribunal. But many find the effort to use police power to depose its leadership unacceptable. Mr Swieczkowski is “the worst possible person to serve as president of the constitutional court, but there are no legal grounds for [suspending] him,” Marcin Matczak, a constitutional scholar, wrote on X the evening of the confrontation. “You cannot restore the rule of law by force.”■