Poland is in the throes of a constitutional crisis as a battle over the future of the country’s highest court ignites another confrontation between the country’s president and prime minister,
The crisis came to a head on Friday when center-left Prime Minister Donald Tusk moved to remake Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, whose chief justice was appointed by the previous government – the far-right Law and Justice party (PiS).
The judge, Bogdan Święczkowski, was suspended after refusing to allow a new member of the Tribunal, who had been nominated by Tusk and approved by the Polish parliament, from taking his seat. His deputy was also suspended.
The current crisis is the latest and possibly most serious chapter in a long-running dispute over the rule of law in Poland.
Tusk’s pro-European Civic Coalition was elected in 2023, after an election campaign in which he promised to restore the Tribunal’s independence. President Karol Nawrocki, who belongs to PiS, was elected separately last year. Poland’s president has little executive power but plays an important constitutional role.
Since then, deadlock has become crisis.
Nawrocki described Święczkowski’s removal as the chief judge as “a forcible takeover of a constitutional body.” On hearing the news, he abandoned a trip to Africa, ordered his aircraft to turn round and headed straight to the Tribunal.
Nawrocki is a vocal supporter of US President Donald Trump, who said in September: “I endorsed him, and now he’s president and he’s doing a fantastic job.” Nawrocki has suggested a new US military base in Poland will be called “Fort Trump”.
During its eight years in power – until 2023 - PiS appointed several judges to seats on the Tribunal already filled by the previous government.
In 2021, the European Union warned that PiS’ actions posed a “systemic risk to the rule of law in Poland” in undermining the Tribunal’s independence. The European Commission froze $137 billion in EU funding for Poland over concerns about the independence of Polish judges.
The PiS-appointed judges remained in place after Tusk was elected and have obstructed his efforts to nominate new judges. Nawrocki has refused to swear in three of six judges nominated by parliament, while Swieczkowski declined to seat the judges chosen by parliament.
Last week, the latest judge to be approved by parliament – Maciej Berek - was prevented from taking his seat amid scuffles outside the Tribunal in Warsaw.
On Saturday, riot police reinforced security measures around the court in central Warsaw.
Tusk, who has spent much of his time as Prime Minister trying to unstitch the PiS changes to the judiciary, said his government was seeking to restore the rule of law.
“This process is difficult, at times even painful, and requires decisive action. There is no other way,” he said on X Saturday.
In a televised speech Tusk said that “shouting, lies, and brawling cannot be the source of law in Poland, and they never will be.”
He insisted the Tribunal “will function as it should. Also, independently of me and in line with the constitution.”
Analysts say the crisis deepened when parliament approved the nomination of Berek, a close ally of Tusk.
It “contradicts the government’s pledge to depoliticise the Tribunal,” wrote Alberto Allemano, a professor of law at the HEC Paris Business School.
“The Friday suspension of the Tribunal’s president and vice-president, ordered by one judge and accompanied by a police presence outside the building, is not in itself a “coup”: the stated aim is to restore a lawfully functioning court. But restoring the rule of law must itself be done lawfully,” Allemano wrote on X .
At the same time, “If the Polish government is trying to repair an institution captured under PiS, its opposition is striving to retain some control through illegal means,” he added.
The US ambassador to Poland Tom Rose warned on Friday night that “thousands gathering outside the tribunal make an already dangerous situation more combustible. The last thing Poland needs is a confrontation that spirals into something far worse.”
“I hope everyone involved—government officials, law enforcement, and demonstrators alike, to take a deep breath, and don’t take any action that could provoke violence or further escalation,” Rose said on X.
But it’s unclear how the standoff between Tusk and Nawrocki can be resolved. Neither seems ready to compromise at a time when Poland faces growing security threats – with the war across the border in Ukraine, and sabotage attacks inside Poland that Tusk has attributed to Russia.
Tusk said Saturday of his opponents that it was “no coincidence that they find support among pro-Russian forces around the world.”
Fresh elections are due next year, with Poland’s constitutional order and its political direction – towards or away from deeper integration with Europe – high on the agenda.
