The longstanding struggle between Poland’s right-wing president and leftist government over control of the country’s top court dramatically escalated on Friday night as riot police surrounded the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw.
Police were deployed as an announcement appeared on the court’s website stating that its president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and vice-president, Bartlomiej Sochanski, had been suspended from their duties. Their profiles were reportedly removed from the website.
Shortly afterward, the tribunal’s official X account claimed that its website had been subjected to an “unlawful takeover” and insisted that both officials remained in their posts. “All persons participating in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d’état,” the account stated.
Protesters gathered outside the court building. According to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), Swieczkowski entered the tribunal’s grounds after his supporters cut through a gate lock with a circular saw. He subsequently left the grounds and called for calm, PAP reported.
Police said their deployment followed a warning from Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, whose status as a Constitutional Tribunal judge is disputed by the court’s existing leadership, about possible threats to judges and staff and the risk of public disorder. Officers denied entering the court building.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended what he described as efforts to restore the rule of law following the previous government led by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. “After years of lawlessness under PiS, this is a difficult, sometimes painful process that requires decisive action. There is no other way,” he wrote on X.
President Karol Nawrocki cut short a planned trip to Senegal and turned his plane around to return to Poland amid the escalating crisis.
Tusk has been locked in a prolonged battle with Nawrocki and the PiS over judicial appointments. Nawrocki has refused to administer the oath to five judges elected by parliament, while the tribunal’s existing leadership has challenged their authority to take up their posts.
Tusk’s liberal Civic Coalition leads Poland’s governing coalition, while Nawrocki holds the presidency. The Constitutional Tribunal remains dominated by judges appointed by PiS before Tusk took power in 2023. During PiS’s eight years in power, the EU repeatedly criticized the party’s judicial reforms, accusing it of undermining judicial independence.
