Warsaw, Oct 31:
Poland plunged into a fresh constitutional crisis after the suspension of the head of its Constitutional Tribunal was denounced as a coup attempt, prompting President Karol Nawrocki to cut short his visit to Senegal and rush back to Warsaw.
The controversy erupted after Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska announced the suspension of Tribunal President Bogdan Swieczkowski and Vice-President Bartlomiej Sochanski for a month. She accused the court’s leadership of obstructing judges elected by the current parliamentary majority and preventing the tribunal from functioning properly. She subsequently assumed charge of the institution.
The move triggered protests outside the tribunal on Friday, with demonstrators accusing Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European government of interfering with the judiciary. Some protesters breached the court’s perimeter fence and threw objects at police personnel. Police detained three people and deployed additional security around the building.
President Nawrocki, who was travelling to Senegal, announced that he was abandoning the trip and returning to Poland. “At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning,” he said in a post on X. His chief of staff later confirmed that the President had entered the tribunal building. The tribunal’s official account rejected the suspension, maintaining that Swieczkowski continued to remain its president and describing the move as a coup d’Ć©tat.
The confrontation is the latest chapter in a prolonged dispute between Tusk’s government and the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party over control of the judiciary. Tusk, who came to power in 2023, has pledged to restore the rule of law and reform the judicial system. However, his efforts have repeatedly faced resistance from Nawrocki, who is backed by PiS. The latest standoff has raised fresh questions over the independence, leadership and functioning of Poland’s highest constitutional court.