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Poland’s top court became a doorway fight after midnight.
President Karol Nawrocki of Poland went to the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw shortly before 1 a.m. last night, The Guardian reports. The President walked through a police cordon and was seen in videos online struggling with security as well as with judges trying to stop him from entering the building. The President of the Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapiński, was with him. His chief of staff, Paweł Szefernaker, confirmed that the President had gone inside. He was still there at 5 a.m. when a statement was read outside the door of the Tribunal on his behalf, demanding that the security forces leave, and saying a constitutional body had been seized by force.
This was around 7:45 p.m. Friday on the U.S. East Coast.
Nawrocki is a conservative backed by the Law and Justice party. The Guardian has described him as a close ally of Donald Trump. The Polish president was due to fly to Senegal on Friday but turned his plane around en route, saying “At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland,” reported Euronews.
It all started with Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, one of the five judges appointed by the current parliament whom Nawrocki has refused to swear in. On Friday she declared the suspension of the President of the Constitutional Tribunal, Bogdan Święczkowski and his deputy Bartłomiej Sochański. Korwin-Piotrowska declared that from now on she is the President of the Tribunal. She is not a judge of the court, according to the Tribunal’s own statement. The Tribunal said everyone taking part was committing the crime of a coup d’état. Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek has asked for lifting the immunity of Święczkowski and Sochański so they can be charged by the prosecutors. Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote that “restoring the rule of law requires decisive action” and that there is “no other way,” the BBC reported.
Riot police were sent to the scene in order to secure the court building. Three people were detained by police after breaching the fence around the court, Euronews reported. Law and Justice supporters chanted “Tusk traitor” outside, AFP reported.
The struggle around the Constitutional Tribunal dates back to several years when, under the rule of Law and Justice party, the Tribunal decided that Polish law took precedence over EU legislation. In 2023 Tusk promised to resolve the dispute with Brussels. Nawrocki refused to swear in the judges elected by the current parliament.
Paweł Soloch, the Polish Ambassador to Romania, resigned overnight. In a letter to Polish President Karol Nawrocki and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, he explained that he has seen no way he could continue in his role after what he called an illegal attempt to seize control of the Tribunal. Jakub Kumoch, Poland’s Ambassador to China, had resigned earlier on Friday. Sikorski added that Kumoch is no longer an Ambassador of the Republic of Poland.
Nawrocki has called urgent talks. Poland votes next year.
