Polish President Karol Nawrocki cut short his journey to Senegal and returned to Poland after a far-right ally was suspended as head of the country’s top court, deepening a confrontation with Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government over the judiciary.
Yesterday, the Constitutional Tribunal announced that its longest-serving judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, had suspended Bogdan Swieczkowski, the tribunal’s president and an appointee of Mr Tusk’s far-right predecessor. She then assumed control of the court.
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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the tribunal last night as police maintained a heavy presence. Right-wing politicians told the crowd that Mr Tusk’s government was staging a coup against the court.
“At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning,” Mr Nawrocki wrote on X.
Mr Tusk said on X that his government was working to rebuild the rule of law, which the European Union had accused his predecessors, the Law and Justice Party, of undermining.
“This process is difficult, at times even painful, and requires decisive action. There is no other way,” he said.
The roots of the dispute stretch back to 2015, when the nationalist Law and Justice party attempted to appoint judges to positions that had already been filled by the previous government.
The party’s nominees went on to secure a majority on the Constitutional Tribunal. Critics in Poland and abroad argued that the court no longer satisfied the requirements of an independent and impartial tribunal established under the law.
After Mr Tusk’s coalition came to power in 2023, it promised to restore the rule of law and overhaul the tribunal. But Mr Nawrocki, an ally of Law and Justice, has moved to block those efforts since becoming president in 2025.
Earlier this year, Mr Nawrocki refused to swear in three of six judges nominated by parliament. Mr Swieczkowski, a former deputy justice minister in the Law and Justice administration, also declined to seat judges elected by the current parliamentary majority.
Last month, parliament appointed Tusk ally Maciej Berek to the tribunal, a move critics said weakened the government’s claim that it was restoring checks and balances.
