WARSAW - Polish lawmakers submitted a motion on Tuesday to bring central bank governor Adam Glapinski before a state tribunal, setting in train an unprecedented process that could result in him being removed from his post.

The move is part of a broader drive by the coalition government of Donald Tusk, a former European Council president, to bring to account those it accuses of wrongdoing under the previous administration.

A ruling coalition lawmaker told Reuters the parliamentary commission examining the motion would call Glapinski, Mateusz Morawiecki, a former prime minister, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the former ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), as witnesses in the investigation.

"A request was submitted to the Speaker of the Sejm to bring the president of the National Bank of Poland, Adam Glapinski, before the State Tribunal," said Zbigniew Konwinski, a lawmaker from Civic Coalition (KO), the largest grouping in the government.

He said the motion had been signed by 191 members of parliament.

Glapinski's ties to Kaczynski go back decades and he took up a second six-year term as central bank governor in 2022.

"Under Adam Glapinski, the NBP was turned into the main PiS bastion for political tasks, managed by Jaroslaw Kaczynski," said Tomasz Trela, a lawmaker from the New Left which is also part of the governing coalition.

Attempting to oust Glapinski is a potentially risky move.

Christine Lagarde, head of the European Central Bank, told Glapinski in a letter that he could refer any such move to the EU's top court as it might affect the independence of the central bank.

CONSTITUTIONAL RULES

The charges facing Glapinski include lacking independence from the previous government, breaking constitutional rules that prevent the central bank from financing government borrowing when it undertook a quantitative easing programme during the COVID-19 pandemic, and misleading the finance ministry about the bank's financial results.

"The accusations are ridiculous and insult the intelligence of sensible, decent people," central bank board member Pawel Szalamacha told a news conference.

Szalamacha said the quantitative easing programmme was in line with the law and that the accusations against Glapinski were an attack on the independence of the central bank.

The State Tribunal is a body which rules on the constitutional liability of people holding the highest offices in the state.

Glapinski says he has always done his job independent of political influence.

He has staunchly defended his record, pointing to a sharp fall in inflation over recent months and saying that quantitative easing was essential to rescue the largest economy in the east of the European Union during the pandemic.

The central bank said it would hold a press conference at 1330 GMT.

The road to removing Glapinski, whose term ends in 2028, could be long.

The motion will have to be investigated by the parliamentary commission before going to a vote by the full chamber. Only then will the case before the State Tribunal be able to begin.

Dariusz Jonski, deputy head of the commission, told public television TVP Info the initial investigation could start in April, after the Easter break.

The zloty currency has been little moved by the whole saga and was 0.07% weaker against the euro in afternoon trade.

"As long as there is no question... of anything in monetary policy or broader macroeconomic policy changing in Poland, there is no particular reason (for the zloty) to react," said Piotr Bujak, chief economist at PKO BP. REUTERS