Poland's Court Crisis Puts State Power on Display

Police were deployed at Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw after rival groups of judges claimed authority over the country’s highest court, and President Karol Nawrocki cut short a foreign trip to intervene. The fight is over who controls an institution empowered to overturn laws passed by government and parliament. On Tuesday, November 3, another confrontation may come: Anna Korwin-Piotrowska has called an assembly of Tribunal judges to approve its proposed 2027 budget, but the existing leadership disputes her authority.

Who controls the court

The Tribunal is meant to act as an independent check on government and parliament. Its current struggle traces back to contested judicial appointments in 2015, involving the outgoing centrist government and its right-wing successor. During Law and Justice’s (PiS) time in power, judicial reforms raised concerns about political interference and brought prolonged conflict with European institutions over the rule of law.

Five judges elected by the current parliamentary majority remain at the centre of the deadlock. Nawrocki refused to swear them in; they later took their oaths without him, but the Tribunal’s leadership barred them from hearing cases. In October, the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s constitutional advisory body, concluded that the president couldn’t use his role in appointments to obstruct duly elected judges from taking office.

The government and opposition offer competing accounts of the crisis. Donald Tusk’s pro-European government, in office since 2023, refuses to recognise the Tribunal’s legitimacy in its current form. PiS and Nawrocki accuse Tusk of using unlawful methods to replace the court’s leadership with judges sympathetic to his government. Legislative efforts to change the system have been blocked by opposition-aligned presidents.

On Friday, Korwin-Piotrowska announced the suspension of Tribunal president Bogdan Swieczkowski and his deputy, declared herself acting head, and was rejected by the existing leadership. Separately, Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek sought to strip Swieczkowski and his deputy, Bartlomiej Sochanski, of judicial immunity. That could clear the way for criminal charges over alleged obstruction of the Tribunal’s work.

The struggle moves into the street

The announcement brought more protesters to the Tribunal grounds. Opposition supporters had been demonstrating against the newly elected judges taking their posts, and senior PiS politicians joined them as police increased their presence.

Nawrocki cut short a state visit to Senegal, ordered his plane to turn around over Spain and returned to Warsaw. He arrived at the Tribunal in the early hours of Saturday, challenged the authority of the judges seeking control and helped the court’s deputy president enter the building. “Last night, Poland’s constitutional order was violated, and a constitutional state institution was forcibly taken over,” Nawrocki said shortly after 05:00 on Saturday. He demanded that police withdraw and announced emergency consultations with parliamentary party leaders.

In a televised address that evening, Tusk blamed PiS and the PiS-aligned presidents Andrzej Duda and Nawrocki for perpetuating the crisis. “Nobody had any doubt that the Tribunal, in the form imposed by PiS, was not a real court,” he said, arguing that repeated legislative attempts to resolve the dispute had been blocked. He compared the situation to a thief who steals an elderly woman’s handbag and then complains of violence when caught. “On certain matters, there can be no compromise,” Tusk said.

Election promises, institutional deadlock

Poland’s Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights questioned whether the government’s intervention would restore the Tribunal’s authority and called the escalation “extremely harmful.” It said confrontations between judges and the president outside the building “undermine the dignity and authority of state institutions.” The European Commission backed the Polish parliament’s authority to appoint Tribunal judges. US Ambassador Tom Rose warned on X, “The last thing Poland needs is a confrontation that spirals out of control,” while saying Washington didn’t intend to interfere in Poland’s domestic affairs.

With parliamentary elections scheduled for 2027, Tusk’s coalition faces pressure to deliver on its promise to restore judicial independence. In August, he said he was determined to ensure the newly elected judges could take their posts by September, even if the process wasn’t particularly elegant. “Our judges will enter that building,” he said at the Campus Polska Przyszlosci event. On Saturday, Nawrocki met parliamentary party leaders. Proposals from parties ranging from the left-wing Razem to the far-right Confederation included replacing all sitting Tribunal judges with a new bench appointed through a cross-party agreement.