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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
A sharp constitutional crisis and institutional confrontation around the Constitutional Tribunal (CT) are unfolding in Poland.
The essence of what is happening:
• Removal of leadership:
On the official website of the Constitutional Tribunal, orders were posted temporarily removing CT head Bohdan Swenczkowski and his deputy Bartłomiej Sochanski from their duties for one month.
The document was signed by Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, who was elected by the new parliament but whose oath the president had previously refused to administer.
• Criminal prosecution:
On the same day, Justice Minister and Attorney General Waldemar Zurek filed requests to strip Swenczkowski and Sochanski of judicial immunity to prosecute them.
Donald Tusk’s government accuses Swenczkowski of illegally blocking the work of judges legitimately elected by the parliament.
• Accusations of a “coup”:
The Constitutional Tribunal’s official account on X claimed that the court’s website had been illegally seized, that the suspension had no legal force, and called the government’s actions a “state coup.”
Leader of the opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), Jarosław Kaczyński, also publicly called it a government coup.
• President’s reaction:
Amid the escalation of the conflict, Polish President Karol Nawrocki, while flying to Senegal (over southern Spain), decided to turn the plane around and urgently return to Warsaw.
• Protests and police:
Large police forces gathered near the Constitutional Tribunal building in Warsaw to maintain order; supporters of the opposition are assembling there to protest the government’s actions.
Local scuffles occurred; police detained several people who tried to climb over the fence.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk insists the government’s actions are aimed solely at “restoring the rule of law” after many years of violations by the previous PiS government, which, according to the current Cabinet and EU courts, filled the tribunal with loyal and illegitimate judges.
The opposition, by contrast, accuses Tusk of forcibly seizing independent judicial institutions.
We continue to monitor the situation.
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