Chaos at the tribunal
Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska ordered the suspension of Constitutional Tribunal president Bogdan Swieczkowski and his deputy for one month on Friday evening. She announced she would take charge of the institution, which prompted Swieczkowski to reject her authority and call the move a "coup d’etat." While the building’s gates turned away the deputy, protesters clashed with police outside the tribunal. Police deployed to maintain security following warnings of threats to judges and staff, but officers did not enter the building after three people climbed the fence and threw objects at the facility. I view this escalation as the latest stage in Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s attempt to undo the judicial overhaul from the former Law and Justice government. During its eight years in power, the PiS party filled the court with its own appointees. This led the EU’s top court to rule last December that the tribunal failed to meet European standards of judicial independence. The institution also helped impose a near-total abortion ban and challenged the supremacy of EU law in Poland.
Legal moves and protests
President Karol Nawrocki interrupted his official trip to Senegal to return to Poland after PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski tried to force his way into the court building. Nawrocki, a PiS ally and rival of Tusk, declared, "At a moment like this, the president must be in Poland." Kaczynski accused Tusk of staging a "coup" against the court. He claimed Tusk was turning Poland into a "police state" and demanded presidential intervention. Tusk responded on X that restoring the rule of law remains his duty. He added, "After years of PiS lawlessness, it’s a difficult, sometimes painful process that requires decisive action. There is no other way." Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who is also Poland’s prosecutor general, submitted five requests to lift the immunity of Swieczkowski and his deputy. He used 50 volumes of case files to support his claim that the president turned the institution into a "private fiefdom" and told POLITICO, "And now the judges have spoken." This conflict follows Nawrocki’s refusal to swear in five judges elected by Tusk’s parliamentary majority. These judges took their oaths in parliament instead, but Swieczkowski still barred them from hearing cases.
