President Karol Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk clashed at a National Security Council meeting on Tuesday over the crisis at Poland's Constitutional Tribunal, where disciplinary proceedings have begun against senior judges.

Nawrocki convened the council, a constitutional body, at 15:00 on Tuesday. He accused Tusk's government of "illegal actions" against the tribunal and called the dispute a "crime against the constitution." He demanded that Tusk "withdraw from the TK." He also asked for a report on the presence of U.S. troops in Poland.

Tusk responded that he is ready to meet Nawrocki privately, "four-eyes," to defuse the crisis. He said both leaders share responsibility to seek agreement given growing security threats from the east. Later on social media, Tusk wrote that things are "going for the better."

The clash follows events on Friday. Police entered the tribunal building after judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska warned of threats to judges and staff. Korwin-Piotrowska, the longest-serving judge acting as tribunal president, suspended chief justice Bogdan Święczkowski and vice-president Bartłomiej Sochański from their duties.

Nawrocki interrupted a trip to Senegal and returned to Poland, arriving at the tribunal headquarters overnight Friday. On Tuesday, a General Assembly of tribunal judges met, and government-backed judges moved forward with disciplinary proceedings against Święczkowski. Korwin-Piotrowska also made a decision regarding her role in disciplinary proceedings against Sochański.

Presidential minister Marcin Przydacz said the assembly had no quorum and suggested participants could face up to 20 years in prison. He called them a "group of usurpers" attempting a "political spectacle." Protests gathered outside the tribunal and the presidential palace.

Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the opposition Law and Justice party, responded to Tusk's social media post. He wrote that "nothing is going for the better." He said the meeting of an "organized criminal group" at the tribunal shows Poland's dramatic situation under Tusk's government.