Poland’s simmering showdown over who controls the country’s top court burst back into the open as President Karol Nawrocki abruptly turned his plane around on the way to Senegal, responding to the suspension of a far-right ally from the helm of the Constitutional Tribunal and a fresh escalation in his clash with Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government.
Yesterday, the Constitutional Tribunal announced that its longest-serving judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, had suspended Bogdan Swieczkowski — the tribunal’s president and an appointee of Mr Tusk’s far-right predecessor — and had taken charge of the court herself.
As tensions spilled onto the streets, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the tribunal last night under a heavy police presence. Right-wing politicians addressed the crowd and accused Mr Tusk’s administration of staging a coup against the court.
“At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning,” Mr Nawrocki said on X.
The Constitutional Tribunal has been effectively paralysed by a protracted political standoff, with the pro-European government and the nationalist president each refusing to recognise judicial appointees put forward by the other side — a deadlock that has crippled the institution’s ability to function normally.
Mr Tusk, also writing on X, said his government was trying to restore the rule of law after the European Union accused his predecessors — the Law and Justice Party — of subverting it.
“This process is difficult, at times even painful, and requires decisive action. There is no other way,” he said.
The roots of the conflict stretch back to 2015, when the nationalist Law and Justice party moved to appoint judges to seats that had already been filled by the previous government.
Those nominees ultimately secured a majority on the Constitutional Tribunal, as critics in Poland and abroad argued the body no longer met the standards expected of an independent and impartial tribunal established by law.
After Mr Tusk’s coalition took office in 2023, it promised to restore the rule of law and overhaul the court. But Law and Justice ally Mr Nawrocki has sought to block those efforts since winning the presidency in 2025.
Earlier this year, Mr Nawrocki declined to swear in three of six judges nominated by parliament. At the same time, Mr Swieczkowski — a former deputy justice minister under the Law and Justice administration — refused to seat judges elected by the current parliamentary majority.
Last month, parliament appointed Tusk ally Maciej Berek to the tribunal, a move critics said ran counter to the government’s declared aim of restoring checks and balances.
