Motion filed in Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal to ban Communist Party (KPP)

President Karol Nawrocki has filed a motion with Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal requesting the banning of the Polish Communist Party (KPP). The KPP, which has been officially registered as a political party since 2002, is accused of violating the Polish Constitution by promoting elements of the communist system that governed the country between 1945 and 1989.

The motion asserts that the objectives and activities of the KPP include “totalitarian methods and practices of communism” and “presuppose the use of violence to gain power and influence over state policy.”

Legal Context and KPP's Reaction

This is not the first attempt to ban the party. In 2020, former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro filed a similar motion, but the hearing scheduled for October of this year was indefinitely postponed due to Ziobro's failure to appear. He is currently in Hungary and is sought by Polish prosecutors on 26 charges, including leading an organized criminal group.

In response to the previous motion, the KPP maintained that the accusations are unjust and that the prosecution's argumentation relies only on "historical considerations."

The party stated: “The entire argumentation refers only to historical considerations and attempts to blame the current KPP for all the mistakes of the previous system, which was not communism but an attempt to introduce socialism, whose positive side was represented by social reforms.”

According to the Law on Political Parties, if the Constitutional Tribunal finds that a party's objectives or activities are incompatible with the Constitution, the court will immediately issue a decision to remove the political party from the register.