Warsaw Court Clash Turns State Power Physical

On the evening of October 30, judges elected by parliament entered Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal without a presidential oath, while riot police secured the grounds. Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska said she was suspending tribunal president Bogdan Swieczkowski and his deputy for 30 days, citing obstruction of the court’s functioning, and would take over as president herself. The fight over who commands the court has moved beyond legal language.

The State’s Monopoly

The European Commission urged President Karol Nawrocki to recognise the new judges appointed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Nawrocki declined to swear in all of them, and Swieczkowski barred them from entering the court. The European Court of Justice issued an emergency injunction requiring the judges to be allowed to start work; Swieczkowski ignored it. The Venice Commission later recommended that judges should be able to take office without a presidential oath.

The dispute goes back to 2015, when the outgoing centrist parliamentary majority appointed five judges before that year’s election. The court ruled three appointments valid and two unconstitutional because those vacancies arose during the next parliamentary term. After taking power, the Law and Justice party, known as PiS, rejected the previous government’s appointments and chose its own candidates. Successive governments and institutions have carried the contest forward, with each side claiming authority over the same court.

EU institutions have regarded the appointments of Swieczkowski and others as irregular and later tribunal rulings as illegal. PiS reforms put Poland at odds with Brussels, which froze billions in funding because EU institutions did not consider the tribunal “a genuine court”. The funds were released after Tusk returned to power in 2023. His government promised to restore judicial independence, but two successive PiS-allied presidents blocked its proposed court reform.

Police at the Court Door

Tensions rose as police deployed around the tribunal and political and judicial authorities moved against its leadership. PiS supporters gathered outside the Warsaw court, saying they wanted to defend judges appointed during PiS’s years in power and stop government intervention. Swieczkowski, a former PiS minister, called his forced removal a coup d’état. On Friday evening, PiS supporters clashed with riot police and broke into the court building.

Nawrocki cut short a state visit to Senegal and entered the court early Saturday morning. A video posted by a tribunal judge showed Nawrocki appearing to push judges aside as he entered the court complex. Tusk said, “In a democratic state, no politician can enter a court to issue orders or intimidate judges – not even the president.” His government is pressing ahead with an overhaul, while the president and the tribunal’s leadership resist it.

Tusk accused PiS and the head of state of falsifying facts and undermining the rule of law. He compared the PiS-led protest over the suspensions to “a thief snatching an elderly woman’s handbag, running off, and when he is caught, screams that he’s been subjected to violence”. He also said it was “no coincidence” that the PiS campaign had found “support among pro-Russian forces globally”. Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev expressed support for the PiS camp and accused Tusk of a “constitutional coup”.

The Electoral Circus Offers No Exit

PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski accused Tusk of destroying Polish democracy built after 1989 and urged supporters to “topple Tusk”. Foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski admitted Friday’s events were “not elegant”, but said “the alternative was to yield to an unconstitutional transformation of Poland into a presidential republic”. Leading Polish NGOs expressed ambivalence about the suspensions. Former president Lech Walesa wrote on X: “We have no other choice.”

Nawrocki, elected in June 2025 with PiS backing, has worked since taking office to turn the largely symbolic presidency into a more active role in day-to-day politics. He has also sought to unite right-of-centre parties with more extremist groupings. His election brought difficult cohabitation with the government. Political parties held consultations on October 31, but no breakthrough followed, despite calls from the European Commission, legal scholars, civil-society groups and political leaders for reforms to strengthen judicial independence.

Polish politics remains dominated by Tusk’s pro-European Civic Coalition and the conservative-nationalist right headed by Kaczynski, while other groups, including the left, remain electorally marginal. The divide also encompasses abortion, relations with the European Union, support for Ukraine, ties with Germany and the role of the Catholic Church in public life. With the next parliamentary election expected in 2027, political forces are already mobilising supporters, political scientist Ewa Marciniak said. France 24 reported that polls suggested a close race between Tusk’s coalition and the nationalist right. The court remains the prize in a struggle involving presidents, parties, parliament and European institutions; people watching from outside don’t get a say in who commands it.