Polish President Karol Nawrocki forced his way into the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw shortly after midnight on Saturday.
Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal and returned to the capital as a standoff escalated at the court. On Friday, Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska announced the suspension of the tribunal’s president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, citing the need to restore the rule of law. The tribunal’s official X account later stated that Święczkowski remained in office.
Video footage showed Nawrocki pushing past a group of judges, including Korwin-Piotrowska, to enter the building. Judge Maciej Berek accused the president of physically confronting her, while a presidential aide claimed the judges had obstructed Nawrocki. Riot police had been deployed outside the tribunal after supporters of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party attempted to breach the perimeter.
Nawrocki’s chief of staff, Paweł Szefernaker, read a statement early Saturday declaring a breach of Poland’s constitutional order and a forcible takeover of a state institution. Nawrocki called for emergency consultations with all parliamentary parties, citing a threat to internal security.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended the suspension as necessary to restore the rule of law after years of what he called illegal appointments under the previous PiS government. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2021 that the PiS-era judicial appointments were unlawful. Tusk’s government has sought to reverse those changes since taking office in 2023, but Nawrocki, whose election was backed by PiS, has blocked the swearing-in of new judges.
The tribunal’s leadership disputed Korwin-Piotrowska’s authority to suspend Święczkowski, calling the move a coup. Święczkowski and his supporters, including PiS lawmakers, gathered outside the building, where police detained three people for attempting to force entry. The justice minister, Waldemar Żurek, said he would ask prosecutors to investigate Nawrocki’s conduct.
Two Polish ambassadors, Paweł Soloch in Romania and Jakub Kumoch in China, resigned in protest over the events. Both had previously served under former President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally. Former President Lech Wałęsa publicly backed Tusk, stating that the country was in crisis.
