The riot police stood outside Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw on Friday night, October 30, when protesters gathered, turning a constitutional crisis into an event on the streets.
After the suspension of the top judge of the Constitutional Tribunal amidst accusations of “judicial coup d’etat,” the riot police were called to guard the court. By Saturday night, the prime minister had made his decision.
However, the trigger was a suspension. On Friday evening, the Tribunal announced that its most senior judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, had suspended Bogdan Swieczkowski, who is the president of the tribunal and a nominee of Tusk’s nationalist predecessor.
The act was immediately challenged. While Nawrocki’s camp dismissed the validity of the new management, there was a statement on the website of the president of the tribunal claiming that “Anna Korwin-Piotrowska is not a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal.”
The legality of the suspension remains debatable for both sides.
President Karol Nawrocki, who is on friendly terms with the previous government party PiS, was shocked with the turn of events. He canceled his visit to Senegal and made his way back to Poland to join in the action taking place in the court at midnight.
The Chief of Staff of President Karol Nawrocki said that he arrived at the court building escorted by Zbigniew Kapinski, First President of the Supreme Court.
Donald Tusk appeared on TV on Saturday evening. He promised to go ahead with the controversial reforms of the tribunal, stating that "there is no compromise in some cases."
Tusk claimed that the tribunal as it currently exists is not a legal institution. "The tribunal as it was created by PiS is not a real tribunal," he asserted.
He also attacked the president personally. "No politician can come into a court and give orders to the judges, neither the president," he argued.
Words became sharper. Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski agreed that the situation outside the courtroom was far from being elegant, but stated that the alternative would be accepting the conversion of Poland into a presidential republic.
Senior adviser to Nawrocki, Zbigniew Bogucki, accused Tusk of lying and starting fires in Poland. The council of parliament associated with the President referred to Friday’s events as an illegal coup and said that the perpetrators of the crime have been backed by state security services.
The last statement is one of the accusations from the President’s team, and the sources analyzed lack any evidences to back that claim up.
Not even Tusk's own camp has achieved unity. According to The Hungarian Conservative, coalition members PSL and Poland 2050 turned to Nawrocki in their quest for a solution. The newspaper is pro-rightist, and thus, the information must be taken with a grain of salt.
The Civic Coalition refused to participate in the discussions initiated by the president. There were no signs of any breakthrough in the discussions.
The quarrel is an old one. The Tribunal has been paralysed for over ten years and formed the heart of the rule of law disagreements that existed between PiS and the European Union when PiS was in power for eight years.
In the past months, Nawrocki would not swear in five judges appointed by parliament. Both parties have not recognised each other’s choices.
The court has also served as a political tool. In November 2025, it annulled a bill that sought to reform the National Council of the Judiciary, a move that was expected considering how the Court had been composed since the PiS era.
The dispute has European dimensions. Reforms in the judiciary carried out by the last government have been denounced by the EU and deepened the tensions regarding standards of the rule of law.
According to Tusk, what is needed in order to restore the court is determination. His opponents say that he is violating the very norms he claims to be defending.
It is clear from the above facts that the President of the Tribunal has been suspended, there is the head of state in the building, riot police in the streets, and a prime minister who cannot be budged.
The question now is how it will end. The courts, the parliament, the president, and the streets all claim their part, but none is willing to give way.
Where both parties claim that the constitution is on their side, the first thing that falls by the wayside is the court itself.
