Poland’s simmering judicial conflict exploded into a dramatic overnight confrontation Friday, as riot police were deployed outside the Constitutional Tribunal, the court’s president was suspended, and President Karol Nawrocki abruptly cut short a diplomatic trip to Africa and returned to Warsaw to intervene.
The crisis, which pits Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European government against the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party and its allies, has raised fundamental questions about the rule of law and the balance of power in one of the European Union’s largest member states.
The flashpoint came Friday evening when the Constitutional Tribunal’s website announced that its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy had been suspended for one month. A newly elected judge whose legal status remains disputed, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, was named to lead the court temporarily.
The tribunal’s leadership immediately rejected the move. Its official social media account accused the government of carrying out a “coup d’etat” and insisted that Święczkowski remained in office. The court’s website was rendered inaccessible, with officials claiming it had been illegally seized.
The government justified the suspension by accusing Święczkowski of repeatedly breaking the law and obstructing the court’s work. “Restoring the rule of law is our duty,” Prime Minister Tusk wrote on X. “After years of PiS-led lawlessness, this is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and it requires decisive action. There is no other way”.
As news of the suspension spread, hundreds of demonstrators – including PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki – gathered outside the tribunal building in central Warsaw.
Some chanted “Tusk traitor” and attempted to break through security barricades. Police detained three people who tried to enter the court complex, and local media reported several injuries.
“This is a blatant, criminal attack on the constitutional order,” former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro wrote on X, calling for “loud, firm, solidary and fearless” resistance.
One protester, Tomasz Zaleski, told AFP that Tusk was “trampling on our constitutional rights”.
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Meanwhile, President Nawrocki – an independent aligned with the opposition PiS – was mid-flight to Senegal when the crisis broke. He ordered his plane to turn around. “At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland,” he wrote on X. “I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning”.
Upon landing, Nawrocki held an emergency meeting with judicial officials at the presidential palace before making his way through the crowds to enter the tribunal building himself, accompanied by suspended First President Zbigniew Kapinski. On Saturday morning, he declared that a “breach of Poland’s constitutional order” had occurred and summoned parliamentary group leaders for urgent talks on “stabilizing the political situation”.
The confrontation was the culmination of a long-running dispute over Poland’s judiciary that predated the current government.
The Constitutional Tribunal became a central battleground during PiS’s rule from 2015 to 2023. The EU accused Warsaw of politicizing the court, which frequently ruled in favour of Polish legislation over EU law, and imposed financial penalties on Poland.
Tusk’s coalition, which won power in 2023 on a promise to restore judicial independence, has since found its efforts blocked by presidential vetoes – first from Andrzej Duda and now from Nawrocki.
The immediate trigger for Friday’s escalation was a dispute over judicial appointments. Earlier this year, parliament elected eight new judges to the tribunal. Nawrocki accepted the oaths of only three; the remaining five took their oaths in parliamentary ceremonies, but the president and the tribunal’s leadership refused to recognize their status, preventing them from taking up their duties.
Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who is also the attorney general, said he had requested the lifting of legal immunity for Święczkowski and his deputy. “This court has become private property; we must restore its proper functioning,” he told journalists.
