Poland’s long-running fight over who really controls its Constitutional Tribunal turned into a late-night street drama this weekend. Riot police were deployed at the court in Warsaw, its contested president was suspended, and President Karol Nawrocki pushed his way into the building in the early hours of Saturday, October 31.
Here is what happened, why it matters, and what to watch next, based on reporting from The Guardian, AP and Euronews.
What happened on Friday night
On Friday, October 30, a group of judges elected by Poland’s current parliamentary majority moved to suspend the tribunal’s contested president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, and to take procedural control of the court.
Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, one of five judges elected by the current parliament whom President Nawrocki has refused to swear in, said she had assumed the top position, citing her longer experience in the judiciary.
The response was swift. Hundreds of protesters, including opposition MPs, gathered outside the court to back the suspended judges. According to The Guardian, police said they detained three people after some protesters breached the tribunal’s fence and others threw objects at officers.
The president turns his plane around
President Nawrocki, who is backed by the right-wing opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, was on his way to a state visit in Senegal. He turned his plane around and returned to Warsaw.
Shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday, he appeared outside the court and made his way through the police cordon. Video showed him tussling with security as he forced his way into the building. In a statement read on his behalf outside the court at around 5 a.m., he criticised “a violation of Poland’s constitutional order,” said “a constitutional body was seized by force,” and called for security forces to leave the premises.
PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński condemned what he called an “assault” on the court, and the tribunal’s own social media account accused the government of a “coup d’état.”
The government’s side
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government sees things very differently. It has refused to recognise the court’s legitimacy in its current form and argues that it is repairing damage done during PiS’s eight years in power.
“After years of PiS’s lawlessness, this is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and it requires decisive action. There is no other way,” Tusk said, according to The Guardian. Euronews reported that he later addressed the nation in a defiant tone, vowing “no compromise” on the rule of law.
Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said he had asked for Święczkowski and Sochański to be stripped of their legal immunity so they could face prosecution for obstructing the court’s work. Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said the tribunal “was politicised under the previous government.”
Why the legality is so contested
Even critics of PiS are split on Friday’s move. Law professor Marcin Matczak, an outspoken PiS critic, told The Guardian he believed the legal basis for the suspension was “non-existent.”
The roots of the dispute go back to 2015, when the outgoing centrist government and the incoming right-wing government moved in quick succession, using legally questionable steps, to fill the bench with their own appointees. That fight paralysed the court and became a central part of Poland’s years-long clash with the European Union over the rule of law.
Since Tusk returned to power in 2023, his efforts to reverse those changes have been blocked by opposition-aligned presidents using their veto powers. This year Nawrocki refused to swear in the five judges chosen by the current parliament. Earlier this month, the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on the rule of law, said the president’s refusal should not prevent those judges from taking up their posts.
International reaction
The standoff drew attention well beyond Poland. US ambassador to Poland Tom Rose wrote that the events were “very serious,” adding that “the last thing Poland needs is a confrontation that spirals into something far worse.” Several European right-wing figures, including Nigel Farage and Geert Wilders, condemned the government’s move.
AP reported that anti-government protesters gathered outside the tribunal for a second night on Saturday.
What to watch next
- Whether the court can function at all while two rival camps each claim to lead it.
- Whether prosecutors move ahead with the immunity request against the suspended judges.
- How Brussels responds, given the EU’s long focus on Poland’s judiciary.
- The political fallout ahead of next year’s parliamentary election, which polls suggest could be close.
The bottom line
Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal crisis is a decade old, but this weekend it moved from courtrooms and legal opinions to riot police and a president inside a disputed building. Both sides say they are defending the constitution, and for now neither shows any sign of backing down.
Image: 09'2022 Constitutional Tribunal 2 by PanBe via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0
