President Duda discussed court reforms with leaders of parties

President Andrzej Duda invited leaders of parliamentary factions to the Presidential Palace on Wednesday. Leaders of Law and Justice, Civic Coalition, the Left, PSL-Kukiz15 and Confederation all showed up to discuss the bill on court reforms, which currently is in the hands of the president waiting to be ratified.

Mr Mucha said that during the meeting, independent senator Lidia Staroń called for the bill to be signed as soon as possible. Similar call - said the presidential minister - was voiced by Law and Justice representatives. Conversely, opposition politicians called on the president to veto the amendment to court laws and send it to the Constitutional Tribunal.

Presidential minister added that the idea behind the meeting was a concept of dialogue. "This presidency is open for dialogue, this wasn't the first meeting regarding the reform of the justice system" - Mucha said.

"All prerogatives are now in the hands of the Polish president" - said Paweł Mucha and reassured that President Duda would consider all opinions voiced at the meeting before making the decision whether or not to sign the bill.

"The meeting in the President's Chancellery with no constructive decisions whatsoever. In my view, President Andrzej Duda has already made a decision. Arguments he used were a repetition of minister Ziobro's words. It's a shame when political interest is place above the constitution" - new head of the Civic Platform and Civic Coalition Borys Budka wrote on Twitter after the meeting.

"We came to Mr President with a call to veto this bill and to prepare a real reform of the justice system. We want a real compromise, a real agreement" - said the chief of the Polish People's Party (PSL) Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.

He added that the president "didn't say if he would sign, but after his comments, his defense of this bill, and his 100-percent conviction that these changes were necessary, we might suspect - and this is only our impression - that he's likely to sign the bill and thereby deepen the chaos".

The chairman of the Left Włodzimierz Czarzasty said after the meeting that "each side has their own conclusions. Mine is this: the president will sign the bill". Czarzasty added that there were huge difference between the president, his political camp, and the democratic side, as to the assessment of the situation in the Polish judiciary, as well as to what is in accordance with the law, and what is against. "We differ over what it means to violate the constitution, to politicize the judiciary, and the meaning of judicial independence" - he stressed.