Polish president rushes home as court showdown sparks clashes, ‘coup’ accusations

Polish President Karol Nawrocki returned to Warsaw on Friday after cutting short a flight to Senegal as a disputed move to suspend the Constitutional Tribunal’s leadership triggered protests and a police deployment outside the court.

Police said three people were detained after demonstrators breached the tribunal’s fence and threw objects at officers. Authorities said police were operating on the court’s grounds, but had not entered the building, and described the deployment as necessary to protect judges and staff.

Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, a government-backed judicial appointee whose status Nawrocki disputes, said she had ordered the suspension of tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, for one month and assumed responsibility for running the institution.

The tribunal’s existing leadership rejected the move. A statement on its X account said the court’s website had been unlawfully seized, insisted Święczkowski remained president and accused those involved of attempting a coup.

Opposition Law and Justice party leader Jarosław Kaczyński also condemned the intervention.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended decisive action to restore the rule of law after years of what he called lawlessness under Law and Justice.

Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said he had sought the lifting of immunity for Święczkowski and Sochański, accusing them of preventing newly elected judges from performing their duties.

Nawrocki landed in Warsaw late Friday and headed to the presidential palace for urgent talks involving Święczkowski and Supreme Court chief Zbigniew Kapiński, Polish media reported. Kapiński separately condemned the developments and objected to using police to resolve constitutional disputes.

The confrontation escalated a longstanding struggle over Poland’s judiciary. Tusk’s coalition, which took office in 2023 promising to reverse the previous government’s judicial changes, has clashed with Nawrocki over appointments to the tribunal. The president has refused to administer oaths to some parliament-selected judges, while Święczkowski has blocked them from taking up their posts.