Tusk Says Police Shielded Top Court as Poland Crisis Explodes
In a televised address to the nation, Tusk said: “The attack on the Constitutional Tribunal and its judges is another stage in the process of destroying the rule of law in Poland by the PiS” – the former ruling Law and Justice party – as well as Nawrocki and former President Andrzej Duda.
Two irreconcilable accounts
Tusk said the judges now trying to run the tribunal were lawfully elected but were unlawfully blocked from taking office. Nawrocki and the opposition insist those same judges never legally assumed their posts.
According to Tusk, parliament lawfully elected new judges after the terms expired for earlier members appointed under Law and Justice (PiS) rule from 2015 to 2023. Nawrocki refused earlier this year to formally accept the oaths of some of them, he said.
“Legally elected members of the tribunal were attacked, and the police at the scene protected the tribunal from the attackers,” Tusk said.
He argued that calm cannot return by “giving way to lawlessness and violence,” and said a democratic state “must be strong and capable of enforcing justice.”
Tusk’s version flatly contradicts that of Nawrocki, who said early Saturday that Poland’s constitutional order had been violated and that there had been a “forcible takeover of a constitutional state body.”
How the standoff erupted
The crisis began around 6 pm (1700GMT) Friday, when an order appeared on the tribunal’s website suspending President Bogdan Swieczkowski and Vice President Bartlomiej Sochanski from their duties. Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska was named to run the court in their place.
The tribunal’s X account, still controlled by the previous leadership, declared the website had been unlawfully seized and said Swieczkowski and Sochanski remained in office. It accused those behind the move of staging a “coup.”
Police were posted around the building after Korwin-Piotrowska warned of threats to judges and staff and the risk of public disorder.
Nawrocki, who was en route to Senegal, turned his aircraft around over Spain and flew back to Warsaw late Friday. After meeting Supreme Court First President Zbigniew Kapinski, he arrived at the tribunal shortly before 1 am (0000GMT) Saturday and confronted Korwin-Piotrowska and other judges whose status he disputes.
Video from inside the court showed him telling them: “You are not judges of the Constitutional Tribunal.”
Fallout spreads
Nawrocki stayed at the tribunal until early morning and later described the crisis as a threat to Poland’s internal security. He summoned emergency consultations with parliamentary groups Saturday “to stabilize the political situation and restore constitutional order.”
The turmoil also reached Poland’s diplomatic corps, as the country’s ambassadors to China and Romania both resigned over the incident.
The opposition went on the offensive against Tusk’s government Saturday. Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said a constructive vote of no confidence would be filed. He proposed a former parliament speaker to lead a technical government until elections.
The clash grows out of a long-running dispute over the Constitutional Tribunal and judicial appointments. PiS reshaped the court during its eight years in power, drawing criticism from European institutions over judicial independence.
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