Poland outlaws the Communist Party because it "glorifies criminals and regimes responsible for the deaths of millions of people"
The decision calls for the cancellation of the party's legal registration, as established by the Law on Political Parties, and closes a process that had been in dispute for years.
Judges of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal.
The Constitutional Tribunal of Poland ruled for the immediate illegalization of the Communist Party of Poland(KPP) on Wednesday after concluding that its aims and activities contradict the Constitution. The ruling holds that the organization - founded in 2002 - "glorifies criminals and regimes responsible for the deaths of millions of people," the court's president, Judge Krystyna Pawłowicz, noted.
The decision requires the cancellation of the party's legal registration, as provided for in the Political Parties Act, and closes a process that had been in dispute for years over whether the KPP violated constitutional prohibitions against organizations based on totalitarian ideologies.
The central argument: The Polish Constitution prohibits totalitarian ideologies
Polish President Karol Nawrocki - who reactivated the case on Nov. 6 - argued that the KPP glorifies criminal regimes such as Stalinism and that its ideological orientation clashes head-on with the Constitution. The Polish constitution expressly forbids the existence of parties that promote ideologies linked to Nazism, fascism or communism.
Nawrocki, who previously headed the Institute of National Remembrance, a body dedicated to documenting the crimes of totalitarian regimes, further argued that communist ideology is incompatible with "fundamental human values and the traditions of European and Christian civilization."
A ruling with symbolic weight in Central Europe
The decision of the Polish Constitutional Court is part of the country's historical stance toward the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century and Central Europe's efforts to clearly differentiate its democratic systems from the authoritarian structures of the past.
With the ruling, Poland sends a strong message about the constitutional limits governing its political life and about the incompatibility between liberal democracy and organizations that seek to vindicate figures or systems responsible for massive human rights violations.
Other decisions in Europe against communism
- Czech Republic: in July 2025 its parliament passed a reform to the penal code that equates the promotion of communism with the promotion of Nazism. The new law punishes with up to five years in prison the dissemination, support or promotion of totalitarian ideologies, including communism.
- Ukraine: since 2015 has applied a law banning communist propaganda - including symbols such as the hammer and sickle - and has outlawed communist parties under that framework.
- Lithuania and Latvia: after the collapse of the USSR, both countries adopted regulations aimed at "decommunizing" their public spaces and political life. They have banned both communist symbols and, in some cases, the activity of communist parties.
LATEST
