Presidential elections 2025. Nawrocki through the cabinet council wants to “mobilize the government”. Experts: can't

Right to convene Cabinet council It gives the President the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. In her art. 141.

On March 6, 2025, in Żyrardów, during a meeting with his supporters, Karol Nawrocki, a candidate of Law and Justice in the presidential election, guaranteed the audience that “Zagoni Government to work”. “The president has such a mechanism – this is the cabinet council” – he explained. On March 27 in Staszów he announced:” When I become the president of Poland, it is thanks to the Cabinet Councilits legislative initiatives, possibilities on the international arena – and therefore due to the convening of a special European summit dedicated to the green order – I will say clearly that we must reject this ideology that destroys the Polish social economy. “

He also mentioned the cabinet council on May 24 in an interview at RMF FM 24. The journalist asked: “As the president, what tool do you have to control the government here?” Nawrocki replied: “There is, of course, the cabinet council, thanks to which I can mobilize the government“.

Since 1995, presidents have convened a cabinet council over 20 times. Most often, Aleksander Kwasniewski – 10. Several times his successors, i.e. Lech Kaczyński, Bronisław Komorowski and Andrzej Duda. The latter convened her meetings three times. The first concerned international policy and events in the Middle East, as well as the celebration of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Second – epidemic situation and the fight against coronavirus.

The last meeting of the Cabinet Council took place in February 2024. It concerned the implementation of strategic investments such as the Central Communication Port, the issue of nuclear energy and modernization of the Polish army. It was divided into explicit and closed part. Then the president made a statement. During the part for the media, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that he had obliged the Minister of Justice to provide the President with a set of documents that confirm “one hundred percent purchase and use in a legal and illegal manner from Pegasus.”

However, it should be remembered that the positions presented during the office council are not legally binding. Her meetings only have a political value. The president may pay attention to the prime minister and ministers to important problems. This is explained by Dr. Mateusz Radajewski, a constitutionalist from SWPS:

He emphasizes that, according to the Constitution, the Cabinet Council cannot be used to discuss the current activities of the government, as it can only be convened “in matters of special importance”. “This is only a special form of meeting the government members with the president, who, however, is not entitled to any means of an inner influence on the activities of ministers or the prime minister,” explains the lawyer.

Similarly, Dr. Kamil Stępniak, president of the Center for Constitutional Law and Monitoring of the rule of law, assistant professor at the University of Vocational Training. “The cabinet council does not have any constitutional competences by itself,” writes in the conversation of concrete24. He adds that this advice should be treated rather as a platform for exchanging views between the president and the government as part of the dualism of executive power. “Bogusław Banaszak claimed that the legal nature of the cabinet council should be qualified as an organ with an advisory and consulting profile. Therefore, talks as a form of exerting influence or consultation between the government and the head of state are most possible. However, this is not an authority that has spontaneous competences, and even more so the president, chairing the meetings of the office of the office, does not gain the authorities of the prime minister,” emphasizes the expert.

“The cabinet council can be used as a tool for exerting pressure on the Council of Ministers. It is an informal pressure as an initiation of a dialogue or persuasion, because the cabinet council has no its own competences” – explains Dr. Marcin Krzemiński, a constitutionalist from the Jagiellonian University briefly.