Polish Court Power Struggle Draws Police and Presidential Intervention

A confrontation over control of Poland’s Constitutional Court intensified on Friday as police guarded the institution in Warsaw and President Karol Nawrocki abandoned a trip to Senegal after the court’s president was suspended. Supporters of the former ruling Law and Justice party, known as PiS, gathered outside the building to oppose the move. The court’s website carried a statement saying President Bogdan Swieczkowski and his deputy had been suspended for one month, with Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska appointed to lead the institution temporarily.

Swieczkowski is aligned with PiS, which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023. The exact legal status of the change was disputed. The court’s social-media account said Swieczkowski remained in office and described the government-backed action as a “coup d’etat”.

It also argued that Korwin-Piotrowska could not serve as interim president because she had not been sworn in by the president. Police said officers had been called after a judge reported possible threats to judges and staff. According to the South China Morning Post, some protesters tried to force their way through security barriers and three people were arrested.

Al Jazeera reported that objects were thrown at police. Officers were deployed to prevent demonstrators from entering the court complex, as the gathering became a visible expression of the broader dispute between Tusk’s pro-European government and the nationalist right. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek said he had requested that Swieczkowski and his deputy, Bartlomiej Sochanski, lose their legal immunity so criminal proceedings could be brought against them.

The minister accused the court of becoming private property and said action was required because judges elected by the current parliamentary majority had been prevented from carrying out their duties. Tusk supported the suspension, writing that restoring the rule of law was the government’s duty after years of what he called PiS lawlessness. His administration has promised to reverse controversial judicial changes introduced under the previous government, which critics say politicised the courts and installed judges sympathetic to PiS.

Nawrocki, a PiS-backed president, said he had turned his plane around because the president needed to be in Poland at such a moment. He then met Swieczkowski and the court’s former president at the presidential palace, although no details of possible action were released. Nawrocki has refused to swear in several judges nominated by parliament, citing alleged defects in their selection.

The dispute reflects a conflict that has involved Poland’s presidency, parliament, courts and European institutions. The European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union have ruled that three PiS-backed Constitutional Court judges were improperly elected and questioned the tribunal’s independence. Tusk’s efforts to undo the reforms have repeatedly encountered presidential resistance, leaving the court’s authority and leadership contested.