President of the Polish Republic

President of the Polish Republic "Mr./Madam President" (informal) "The Honourable" (fomal)" "His/Her Excellency" (outside of Poland) Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej
The 1st President of the Polish Republic, Karolina Kligenberg
In office 5 years, re-elected once
Vice President	N/A
Incumbent	Karolina Kligenberg
Preceded by	N/A

The President of the Polish Republic is the head of state and head of government of Poland-Lithuania. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Polish Armed Forces.

Article II of the 2014 Polish Constitution vests the executive power in the president and charges him/her with the execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory, and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Sejm. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn the Sejm under extraordinary circumstances. The power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially. The President, despite possessing no formal legislative powers beyond signing or vetoing congressionally passed bills, is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of his/her party and the foreign and domestic policy of Poland-Lithuania.

Powers and Roles

Article I: Legislative Role

The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by the Sejm to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:

• Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.
• Veto the legislation and return it to Sejm, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless the Sejm votes to override the veto by a supermajority.
• Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:
  • If the Sejm is still convened, the bill becomes law.
  • If the Sejm has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law.

The President cannot, however, veto portions of laws.

Article II: Executive Powers

War and foreign affairs powers

The President is responsible for conducing war, approved by the Sejm for operations lasting longer than 60 days. The President is the commander-in-chief of the Polish Armed Forces, which is one of the most important duties of the Office of the President of the Polish Republic. The President is the ultimate authority on how the military is used, however the Sejm controls its budget, so Presidents cannot simply act unilaterally when it comes to conducting war.

The President is also the negotiator on behalf of Poland-Lithuania. The President has the power to negotiate treaties, host and attend state visits, and give executive promises to other nations, which would fall over areas like the delivery of international mail in Poland-Lithuania, etc.

Administrative powers

The president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to enforce legislation. The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military. Presidents make numerous executive branch appointments Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president. All appointments must be approved by the Sejm when made during a legislative session.

The power of a president to fire executive officials has become a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at his discretion. However, the Sejm can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute.

The president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.

To manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, organized into the Executive Office of the President of the Polish Republic. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the Presidential Palace, Warsaw.

Juridical powers

The president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the Polish courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of Poland-Lithuania. However, these nominations do require Sejm confirmation. Securing their approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves.

Two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. The state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security.

Legislative Facilitator

The Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of the Sejm. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in the Sejm. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into the Sejm. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but are known as the State of the Republic address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year.

The president may convene the Sejm. If members cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for the Sejm to adjourn.

Ceremonial Roles

The presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as "propagandized leadership" which has a "mesmerizing power surrounding the office." As a celebrity, the President comes under scrutiny not only in domestic affairs but internationally, as the President represents the entirety of the state at home and abroad.

Presidents are also responsible for giving military and ceremonial awards, which are done around Christmas time traditionally at the Winter Ball (the Monarch would previously do this great duty).