Polish president aborts Africa trip as power struggle erupts at Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw

Warsaw police said officers had been sent to the tribunal after receiving information about possible threats to judges and staff and a risk of public disorder. Police said they had not entered the court building and denied claims that officers had stormed it. Three people were detained after allegedly climbing over the fence surrounding the tribunal, while police said objects had also been thrown at officers.

Orders appeared on the tribunal’s website on Friday temporarily removing its president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and vice president, Bartlomiej Sochanski, from their duties. But the tribunal’s official account on X later rejected the decision as illegal, saying that both remained in office and describing the attempt to remove them as a “coup.”

The confrontation prompted Nawrocki to abort an official visit to Senegal while his plane was over southern Spain. “In such a moment the president must be in Poland. I am interrupting the flight to Senegal. I am returning,” Nawrocki wrote on X.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended the process later on Friday evening. “Restoring the rule of law is our duty. After years of PiS lawlessness, it is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and requires decisive action. There is no other way,” he wrote on X, referring to the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Tusk’s government and Nawrocki, who is allied with the conservative PiS, now in opposition, have been locked in a dispute over Poland’s courts and judicial appointments.

PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski and other opposition politicians arrived outside the court and accused the government of trying to seize control of the institution. Kaczynski described the events as a “coup against the Constitutional Tribunal” and called on Nawrocki to intervene.

At the center of the dispute is Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, who said she had ordered Swieczkowski and Sochanski to stop carrying out their duties.

She told public broadcaster TVP Info that seven judges were inside the building and that no police officers had entered it.

Deeper dispute over judges at top court

The conflict reflects a deeper dispute over who can legally sit on the tribunal.

Parliament elected Korwin-Piotrowska and several other judges earlier this year, but Nawrocki refused to formally receive the oaths of some of them.

His office argues they therefore never legally took office. The judges and the governing coalition reject that interpretation.

Friday’s crisis also came as Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Zurek sought to lift the judicial immunity of Swieczkowski and Sochanski.

Zurek said he had filed five applications with the tribunal, four concerning Swieczkowski and one concerning Sochanski. “These are serious criminal cases,” he told reporters.

The Constitutional Tribunal has been at the center of Poland’s long-running dispute over the rule of law.

The PiS reshaped the court after coming to power in 2015, drawing criticism from opposition parties and European institutions over judicial independence.

Since taking office in late 2023, Tusk’s coalition has argued that the court must be rebuilt to restore constitutional order.

The PiS and Nawrocki accuse the government of using the rule-of-law campaign to remove political opponents from key state institutions.

Nawrocki was expected back in Warsaw on Friday evening as the standoff continued.