Poland's long-running dispute over its Constitutional Tribunal escalated on Friday after the court's president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, was suspended, setting Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government against President Karol Nawrocki and drawing protesters to the court in Warsaw.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the building on Friday night, and riot police were deployed. Police said they detained three people after some protesters threw objects at officers and tried to break through the security fence around the court. Police said their deployment followed information from a judge about possible threats to judges and staff, and that officers were securing the grounds and had not entered the building.
Al Jazeera reported that Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska announced one-month suspensions of Swieczkowski and his deputy, Bartlomiej Sochanski, and said she was taking over the running of the tribunal. Questions have been raised over whether she has that authority, since her claim rests on her overall length of judicial service rather than her time on the tribunal. In separate steps, Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who is also prosecutor general, took measures that could lead to criminal proceedings against the two suspended judges. Far-right critics call the measures politically motivated.
Competing positions
"Restoring the rule of law is our obligation," Tusk wrote on X on Friday evening. He added that after years of lawlessness under the Law and Justice party (PiS), the process is difficult and requires decisive action. In a televised speech on Saturday night, he said he was certain the tribunal would function independently and in line with the constitution, and that the executive's task was to ensure its safety and working conditions.
Nawrocki, an ally of PiS, turned his plane back during a flight to Senegal and went to the tribunal early Saturday. "Tonight, there was a breach of public order in the Republic of Poland and a forcible takeover of a constitutional body," he said in a statement read by an aide outside the court. Protesters called for Swieczkowski's reinstatement and accused the government of a coup.
Representatives of Poland 2050 and the Polish People's Party, two members of Tusk's governing coalition, met Nawrocki on Saturday along with several opposition parties. Tusk did not attend. The president's camp hopes the crisis will erode Tusk's parliamentary majority, CBC reported. The coalition also includes Tusk's Civic Coalition and the Left.
How the dispute began
The tribunal checks whether laws, policies and international agreements comply with the constitution. PiS, which won the 2015 election, brought the tribunal and the Supreme Court under political control, in part by cancelling appointments made by the previous government and choosing its own judges.
The European Union's top court ruled in December 2025 that the tribunal was not independent and impartial because of politicized appointments. The EU withheld billions of euros from Poland during the PiS-led governments of 2015 to 2023, saying their judicial changes undermined democratic checks and balances.
Tusk's coalition took office in 2023 promising to restore the rule of law and reform the court. This year parliament elected eight judges to the 15-member tribunal. Nawrocki, elected president in 2025, swore in three but withheld the oath from five, who took their oaths without him. Swieczkowski, a former deputy justice minister under PiS, refused to let those five begin hearing cases.
A general assembly of tribunal judges is scheduled for Tuesday. It can only make decisions if 10 of the 15 judges are present. Polish lawyer Marcin Matczak told Al Jazeera that attempts to lift immunity at the meeting could deepen the confrontation if the assembly's composition or quorum is challenged.
The events come a year before Poland's next parliamentary election, in which Tusk's coalition will face several hard-right parties that back the president's position.
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