During today’s meeting of the Sejm Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Civic Platform MP Zofia Czernow raised the issue of incorporating the Bolesławiec facility into the court in Zgorzelec. Jarosław Gowin interrupted the parliamentarian and said that this concept had already changed.

The minister’s spokesperson, Patrycja Loose, informed us that the ministry had collected comments from court presidents. “Meetings with local-government officials have begun; we will analyse these comments,” she stressed.

President Piotr Roman and secretary Jerzy Zieliński met with the minister in person. The result? Jarosław Gowin initially changed his decision regarding the District Court. “We are extremely pleased about this,” Rafał Gruca, head of the District Court, told us today. “Bolesławiec deserves to have a district court, not some strange creation such as a branch outside the court’s main seat.”

It is not known, however, whether the branch outside the main seat of the court in Lwówek Śląski will be attached to the Bolesławiec court. “If that happened, residents of Lwówek County would still be closer to Bolesławiec than to Lubań,” Gruca said.

In his opinion, interventions by local-government officials had a major influence on the justice minister’s change of decision. “Direct discussions always matter a great deal; this is always a better way to get rational arguments across,” he added.

“There is no written decision yet, but today we should already learn more about the matter,” says Piotr Roman. “It was difficult, but last week the Bolesławiec secretary and I met with the minister, held a long discussion and presented a huge amount of material prepared by the City Office on the basis of data obtained from the court. We heard that what we had prepared was highly substantive and convincing, but the ministry needs to consider it.”

“We also presented our concept to the minister. We showed that a much cheaper and more rational solution would be to attach the Lwówek court to Bolesławiec,” the president continues. “We need to remain hopeful. I think we can already say that common sense is prevailing. We should also thank the people who signed the protest against the ministry’s plans. Maintaining Bolesławiec as one of Lower Silesia’s centres is very important.”

“If it is true that the court will remain in Bolesławiec in its current form, then, first of all, I am very pleased,” comments Dariusz Kwaśniewski. “Secondly, it does not surprise me, since objective data indicated that this court simply should be here. It is also good that so many institutions—the city, county, municipalities and Civic Platform—jointly contributed to this success. It proves that together we can achieve more.”

Let us recall that in December last year we wrote that the justice ministry wanted the Bolesławiec court to become a branch outside the main seat of the court in Zgorzelec. Rafał Gruca spoke about the matter during the December session of the City Council. “I think this project is not good. In the capital, they view the court issue through the prism of Warsaw, Katowice, Wrocław and possibly Gdańsk,” he said at the time. “If this regulation comes into force, our city will lose prestige. Bolesławiec, with 40,000 residents, will be subordinate to a city with 30,000 residents. We must fight to ensure that a district court continues to operate here.”

The City Council unanimously adopted a resolution opposing the justice ministry’s plans. The statement was submitted to Jarosław Gowin and representatives of the government and local administration in Lower Silesia.

Bolesławiec Civic Platform also took action. “I proposed to Karol Stasik, chairman of the county structures, that we protest as Civic Platform. That is what happened. If there is a fear that arguments and common sense may not be enough, political action must be taken. Sad but true,” Dariusz Kwaśniewski, head of the city Civic Platform structures, told us on 9 January this year. “We asked Donald Tusk directly to analyse our proposal and support our efforts to retain the District Court in Bolesławiec,” added Karol Stasik, head of Civic Platform in the county.

(information: ii)