Polish president storms into besieged court amid constitutional crisis

31.10.2026 14:38

Polish president storms into besieged court amid constitutional crisis

The longstanding power struggle between Poland’s right-wing, Euroskeptic president and its pro-EU government over control of the country’s top court escalated dramatically on Friday night as riot police surrounded the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw.

The latest stand-off was triggered by Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, a judge backed by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government, who ordered the suspension of the Constitutional Tribunal’s president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and vice president, Bartlomiej Sochanski.

Police were deployed as an announcement of their suspensions appeared on the court’s website, from which their profiles were reportedly removed.

Shortly afterward, the tribunal’s official X account claimed that its website had been subjected to an “unlawful takeover” and insisted that both officials remained in their posts. “All persons participating in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d’état,” the account stated.

Piotrowska meanwhile assumed the role of acting head of the tribunal, citing her seniority as a judge. However, the court’s existing leadership disputes her authority and maintains that Swieczkowski remains its president.

Protesters gathered outside the court building, denouncing what they described as an attack on the tribunal by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Thousands of Poles are now gathered in front of the Constitutional Tribunal building in Warsaw, which has been occupied by police sent by Donald Tusk's government. Opposition figures are describing Tusk's actions as an attempted coup. https://t.co/NcqYhJeeCl
— Europa.com (@europa) October 30, 2026

“We are deeply saddened that Donald Tusk is taking us back several decades, reducing us to a second-class country,” Patryk Jaki, a PiS member of the European Parliament, said.

“Why is Donald Tusk doing this? His main reason is the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling that Polish law takes precedence over European law,” he added, according to Onet.

According to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), Swieczkowski entered the tribunal’s grounds after his supporters cut through a gate lock with a circular saw. He subsequently left the grounds and called for calm.

Police, meanwhile, established an additional security cordon outside the courthouse. Three people were detained for climbing over the fence.

Police said they had deployed officers following requests from the prosecutor general and Korwin-Piotrowska. The requests cited possible threats to judges and staff and the risk of public disorder. Police denied entering the court building, saying their operations were confined to its grounds and surrounding public areas.

Tusk defended what he described as efforts to restore the rule of law following the previous government led by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. “After years of lawlessness under PiS, this is a difficult, sometimes painful process that requires decisive action. There is no other way,” he wrote on X.

President Karol Nawrocki cut short a planned trip to Senegal and turned his plane around to return to Poland amid the escalating crisis.

After landing in Warsaw, Nawrocki held an emergency meeting with Zbigniew Kapinski, the head of Poland’s Supreme Court. After midnight, Nawrocki arrived at the tribunal, physically pushing his way past judges standing in the doorway, according to video footage on social media. There, he confronted both Piotrowska and her fellow coalition-backed appointees Krystian Markiewicz and Maciej Berek, telling them “you are not judges of the Constitutional Tribunal.”

In a statement later, he said that “the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland was violated and a constitutional body of state was forcibly seized” while urging parliamentary consultations to restore order.

Shortly after midnight on Saturday, US Ambassador Tom Rose issued a cautiously worded statement, noting that “both sides offer sharply different accounts of what happened and why.” He urged all parties to avoid violence, warning that “the last thing Poland needs is a confrontation that spirals into something far worse.”

What caused Poland’s constitutional crisis?

The bitter dispute dates back to 2015, when the outgoing parliament, controlled by the pro-EU Civic Platform (PO), appointed five Constitutional Tribunal judges shortly before losing power. While the court subsequently ruled that only two out of five appointments were invalid, the EU-skeptic PiS government replaced all five.

During its eight years in power, PiS introduced sweeping judicial reforms and brought public broadcasters under tighter government control, triggering mass protests. The EU has also repeatedly criticized the party’s judicial reforms, accusing it of undermining judicial independence, while PiS defended them as necessary to strengthen Poland’s sovereignty and accused Brussels of interfering in the country’s internal affairs.

After returning to power in 2023, Tusk pledged to undo the PiS-era reforms, and his coalition refused to recognize the tribunal’s legitimacy. The standoff intensified after PiS-backed Karol Nawrocki won the presidency in 2025 and refused to administer the oath to five of eight tribunal judges elected by parliament in 2026.

How do Poland’s rival camps differ?

Law and Justice (PiS), led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski and which supports Nawrocki, is a nationalist-conservative party emphasizing Catholic traditions, family values, and national sovereignty. Its electoral strongholds have characteristically included rural areas and smaller towns. The party is skeptical of deeper EU integration and frequently clashes with Brussels, although it has not formally sought to withdraw from the bloc.

Civic Coalition, led by Tusk, is a centrist, liberal-conservative and strongly pro-EU alliance, with its electoral base concentrated in major cities. Tusk previously served as president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. His current government also includes centrist and left-wing allies.

Both camps are strongly pro-NATO and pro-US, but Nawrocki is closely aligned with US President Donald Trump, who endorsed his presidential bid; Tusk is connected to the EU bureaucracy.

Both sides have supported Ukraine in its fight against Russia, but Nawrocki has taken a tougher line on Ukrainian refugees’ welfare benefits and demanded that Kiev stop honoring nationalist paramilitaries who collaborated with Nazi Germany during the early stages of the invasion of the Soviet Union and took part in massacres of Polish civilians in what is now western Ukraine.

On the contrary, Tusk has adopted a more conciliatory approach, emphasizing the importance of continued support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.