nam 22 uu 4500 10.59704/00faf3768744d546 DE-Verfassungsblog cr||||| 250618s2025||||xx#|||||o|||| ||| 0|eng|| 10.59704/00faf3768744d546 doi eng 342 23 Kisilowski, Maciej Author aut (orcid)0000-0002-9390-6818 A Constitutional Settlement Is Poland’s Only Hope Kisilowski, Maciej Verfassungsblog 2025-06-18 Text txt rdacontent Computermedien c rdamedia Online-Ressource cr rdacarrier In Poland, the narrow defeat of liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski by the ultra-conservative Karol Nawrocki in the June 1st presidential election marked a turning point. The possibility of restoring the pre-2015 constitutional order has effectively vanished. But this does not mean Polish democracy is doomed. Poland’s European partners must recognize the dramatic shift Polish voters delivered. Rather than fixating on the formal legality—or illegality—of the dizzying array of judicial reforms and counter-reforms enacted since 2015, the time has come to encourage all sides to pursue a national constitutional settlement. This new framework must address not only judicial independence but also the deeper social and political polarization now defining Polish life. CC BY-SA 4.0 elections Poland Rule of Law rule of law crisis Semi-presidentialism Wojciuk, Anna Author aut (orcid)0000-0001-8573-0026 Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 https://verfassungsblog.de/a-constitutional-settlement-is-polands-only-hope/ raw object