Polish lawmakers submit motion to bring central bank chief before tribunal

By Marek Strzelecki

WARSAW (Reuters) -Polish lawmakers have submitted a motion to bring central bank governor Adam Glapinski before the State Tribunal, they said on Tuesday, setting in train an unprecedented process that could result in him being removed from his post.

A ruling coalition lawmaker told Reuters that the parliamentary commission which will initially examine the motion would call Glapinski, former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the former ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), as witnesses in the investigation.

The move is part of a broader drive by the coalition government of Donald Tusk, a former European Council president, to bring to account those it accuses of wrongdoing under the previous administration.

"A request was submitted to the Speaker of the Sejm to bring the president of the National Bank of Poland, Adam Glapinski, before the State Tribunal," ruling coalition lawmaker Zbigniew Konwiński told reporters.

Glapinski's ties to Kaczynski go back decades and he took up a second six-year term as central bank governor in 2022.

Attempting to oust him, however, is a potentially risky move.

Christine Lagarde, head of the European Central Bank, told Glapinski in a letter that he could refer any such move to the EU's top court as it might affect the independence of the central bank.

The charges facing Glapinski include lacking independence from the previous government, breaking constitutional rules that prevent the central bank from financing government borrowing, and misleading the finance ministry about the bank's financial results.

The State Tribunal is a body which rules on the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices in the state.

Glapinski says he has always done his job independent of political influence.

He has staunchly defended his record, pointing to a sharp fall in inflation over recent months and saying that quantitative easing was essential to rescue the largest economy in the east of the European Union during the pandemic.

The road to removing Glapinski, whose term ends in 2028, could be long.

The motion will have to be investigated by a parliamentary commission before going to a vote by the full chamber. Only then will the case before the State Tribunal be able to begin.

Dariusz Jonski, deputy head of the commission, told Radio TOK FM on Monday the initial investigation could start in April, after the Easter break.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Marek Strzelecki; editing by Christina Fincher and Ed Osmond)