Poland has taken a decisive step toward banning the Communist Party of Poland after the country’s top constitutional court issued a unanimous ruling declaring the party’s goals and activities unconstitutional because of its promotion of class hatred and invocation of totalitarian methods to seize and wield power.
In its Dec. 3 decision, the Constitutional Tribunal found the Communist Party of Poland (Komunistyczna Partia Polski, or KPP) in violation of Article 13 of the Polish Constitution, which prohibits political parties that promote totalitarian methods or practices associated with Nazism, fascism, or communism, as well as those that advocate violence to seize power or influence state policy. The party was also deemed inconsistent with Article 11, which requires political parties to be formed freely, operate on equal terms, and influence state policy through democratic means.
As of Dec. 10, the constitutional court has forwarded its ruling to the Warsaw District Court, but no final removal order has yet been issued. The KPP remains listed in the official register.
Presenting the reasoning behind the judgment, Judge Krystyna Pawlowicz cited Nawrocki’s arguments urging the party’s prohibition.
“Communist ideology is directed against the basic values of humanity, the traditions of European and Christian civilization,” she said, citing Nawrocki’s request for a ban. “In the legal order of the Republic of Poland, there is no place for a party that glorifies communist criminals and regimes responsible for the deaths of millions of human beings, including our compatriots—Polish citizens.”
Pawlowicz also cited extensive historical documentation of terror, imprisonment, executions, and repression under communism in Poland.
“One of the main objectives of the system of pervasive terror was to keep society in fear, encourage informing on others, and break social bonds,” she said. “On the basis of Stalinist legislation, at least 5,000 death sentences were handed down in Poland by 1955, while more than 20,000 people died in various prisons, including labor camps, and an undetermined number were deported deep into the USSR.”
She further described the KPP’s programmatic materials as “particularly shocking” for praising Soviet-era aggression and drawing on the pre-war Communist Workers’ Party of Poland’s legacy.
“The Tribunal notes that communists directly originating from that pre-war party installed Soviet occupation and Stalinist oppression in post-war Poland,” she said, noting that several prominent members of the pre-war communist movement went on to hold senior government positions in which they orchestrated a “Stalinist terror” that suppressed Polish society until the fall of communism in 1989.
Under Polish law, the tribunal’s ruling initiates a mandatory process: The Warsaw District Court, which maintains the national register of political parties, must issue an “immediate” decision removing the party from the register. Such an order would effectively dissolve the KPP, liquidate its assets, and bar it from participating in elections or receiving public funding.
Although statutory language suggests that the court should act promptly, implementation may be slowed by an ongoing dispute over the legality of the Constitutional Tribunal’s current composition.
The Epoch Times has contacted the Warsaw District Court for clarification on whether it plans to execute the removal and, if so, when that decision may be issued.
