PiS asks Constitutional Tribunal to stop gov't plans to probe central bank chief

Lawmakers from Poland's ruling coalition are planning to submit a preliminary motion to put central bank chief Adam Glapiński before a state tribunal by the end of the month.

The motion would be dealt with by the constitutional responsibility committee in the parliament and Glapiński could be summoned for hearings.

Glapiński, whose ties to the leader of Law and Justice, the former ruling party, go back decades, has been accused by the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk of not being sufficiently independent.

A motion to the Constitutional Tribual concerning a procedure at the committee was submitted on March 6, Krzysztof Szczucki, a PiS lawmaker who sits on the committee, told Reuters on Thursday (March 14).

"The central bank governor does not respond to the parliament, so the initial proceedings should not be held before the constitutional responsibility committee, it should be a body that would not infringe his independence," Szczucki said.

"The goal is for the process to follow the rules, but we expect it will attempt to harass the central bank governor."

The new pro-European Union government led by Tusk has vowed to ensure that those it accuses of wrongdoing during the rule of the previous nationalist administration will be brought to account, and it has launched sweeping changes in state media and the judicial system.

"The tribunal is so contaminated with lawlessness that it is unable to fulfill its constitutional role," Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz, a lawmaker from Tusk's Civic Coalition party and a member of the constitutional responsibility committee told Reuters. She did not give a date when the motion to probe Glapiński would be ready. "We approach this with a great responsibility, we're conducting analyses, I'm not able to give a specific date when the motion will be ready."