Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has unanimously ruled that the Communist Party of Poland (KPP), founded in 2002, is incompatible with the nation’s 1997 constitution, citing papal encyclicals condemning communism. Source: CNA.
The decision effectively banned the organisation and ordered its removal from the national register of political parties.
The court said the party’s program embraces ideological principles and methods associated with totalitarian communist regimes, which the Polish Constitution explicitly prohibits.
“There is no place in the Polish legal system for a party that glorifies criminals and communist regimes responsible for the deaths of millions of human beings, including our compatriots,” said judge Krystyna Pawłowicz as she presented the tribunal’s reasoning. “There is also no place for the use of symbols that clearly refer to the criminal ideology of communism.”
In its ruling, the tribunal pointed to Article 13 of the Polish Constitution, which forbids political parties or organisations whose programs reference totalitarian methods and practices, including those associated with Nazism, fascism, or communism. The constitution also prohibits groups that promote racial or national hatred, encourage violence to seize political power, or operate with secret structures or undisclosed membership.
After reviewing the party’s documents, ideology, and activities, the court concluded that the KPP’s stated goals aligned with communist totalitarianism and therefore violated Article 13.
The decision comes almost five years after Poland’s former justice minister and prosecutor general, Zbigniew Ziobro, submitted a request to the tribunal to have the KPP outlawed. Last month, Polish President Karol Nawrocki also filed his own application.
In its written justification, the tribunal took the unusual step of referencing Catholic social teaching, citing passages from two papal encyclicals condemning communism.
The judges referenced Pope Pius XI’s 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, which condemned communism’s reliance on class struggle, abolition of private property, and its record of “cruelty and inhumanity” across Eastern Europe and Asia. They also cited Pope Pius XI’s later encyclical Divini Redemptoris (1937), which warned that communist movements sought to inflame class antagonisms and justify violence against perceived opponents in the name of “progress”.
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Citing papal teaching, Poland bans Communist Party over totalitarian ideology (By Bryan Lawrence Gonsalves, EWTN News/CNA)
