Polish President Karol Nawrocki used the anniversary of Poland’s Constitution to appoint a commission charged with preparing a new Constitution before the 2030 presidential election.
The present centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, though, distanced itself from the initiative. It criticised members of the commission as being aligned with the opposition Conservatives (PiS) and of the President for attempting to force through a presidential model of government.
The president created his new body on Poland’s annual Constitution Day, which marks the anniversary of the Constitution adopted by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on May 3, 1791.
It was the world’s second modern Constitution, formed after that of the US two years earlier. The Polish version was in force only for two years as the country became partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austro-Hungary.
Poland regained independence over a century later in 1918 and became a republic. After being occupied by Germany and the USSR during the Second World War, for 45 years Poland was a part of the Soviet-controlled eastern block under a Constitution that enshrined one party rule by the Communists.
The current Constitution was adopted in 1997, less than a decade after the end of Communism in 1989.
It was approved in a referendum in a narrow vote on a low turnout (43 per cent) and introduced a hybrid system in which parliament has the power to appoint a government. The President, elected by popular ballot, has the power to veto legislation, appoint judges and counter-sign appointments of many state officials.
Its provisions, though, do not envisage any form of amending the Constitution other than a vote to do so by a two-thirds majority in parliament.
No party or coalition of parties has enjoyed a two-thirds majority in parliament since the Constitution’s adoption in 1997.
Nawrocki first raised the need for a new Constitution during his inauguration in August 2025, arguing that nearly 30 years on, Poland faces a fundamentally different social and geopolitical situation. The intervening years, he said, had seen numerous disputes over the division of powers between the different branches of government.
The President added that, while he “respects the 1997 Constitution and will remain its guardian until the very end”, it was “a necessary compromise in times of systemic transformation, in an entirely different reality” from today.
“Now we need a new-generation constitution” that is “modernised and adapted” to current conditions, he argued. His aides have briefed reporters that the idea is that the commission brainstorms ideas and that the parliament should then consider the proposals before them being put to the people in a referendum.
Nawrocki has insisted that the commission is open to representation from all of Poland’s political forces represented in parliament and that the members of his commission are all scholars or practicing constitutional lawyers.
“I believe that all those who care about the future of the Republic will sit together in the Presidential Palace to work on a new Constitution,” he said.
“I am convinced that today’s problems in the republic are no longer merely political; they are systemic problems,” he declared. “It cannot go on like this, with power in Poland split between two centres.”
He was referring to the fact that there is disagreement between him and the government on judicial reform, defence spending and financial regulations resulting in legislative gridlock.
“State institutions, which should be enduring, should be strong, are being drawn into political and partisan battles, and battles over the judiciary are producing further chaos and further social conflicts,” Nawrocki said. He was alluding to the fact the membership of both the Constitutional and Supreme Court are under challenge and that the status of thousands of judges has been challenged by the Tusk government.
Responding to the President’s initiative, Tusk made clear he would have nothing to do with it and said he did not feel it was a serious initiative.
“The President knows full well that there will not be a constitutional majority in favour of his ideas,” he said and called Nawrocki’s move “a political game” that will simply create “more confusion when Poland needs stability”.
Tusk argued that the current Constitution already “clearly enough sets out” who holds which responsibilities and he called on the President and the opposition to respect it before “tinkering with a new one”
He attacked the opposition PiS, with whom Nawrocki is aligned, as “having done everything to undermine the constitutional order” and said he did not think the President was doing anything more than serving its political interests.
The defence minister and Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, though, was more conciliatory saying Poland’s membership of NATO and the European Union might warrant inclusion in any updated Constitution, but stopped short of endorsing a full rewrite.
Kosiniak-Kamysz leads the centre-right Polish People’s Party, a junior coalition partners in the Tusk government.
Poland is due to hold parliamentary elections in the autumn of 2027 in which PiS and other opposition parties will seek to unseat Tusk’s government.
Current polling indicates that right-wing parties backing Nawrocki will fall well short of the two-thirds required for Constitutional change.
