President Karol Nawrocki races back from Africa as a bitter struggle over judicial appointments escalates into street clashes, diplomatic resignations and accusations of an assault on democracy.
Poland has been plunged into an escalating constitutional crisis after its Constitutional Tribunal accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government of staging a coup, as riot police entered the court building in Warsaw amid clashes with protesters and President Karol Nawrocki cut short an overseas visit to intervene.
The confrontation has brought into the open a long-running battle over the independence of Poland’s judiciary, pitting Tusk’s pro-European Union coalition against institutions and political figures associated with the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government.
At the centre of the dispute is the removal of Constitutional Tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski, a former deputy justice minister under PiS, and the question of whether judges appointed by the current parliamentary majority can take up their positions.
The Tribunal issued a stark warning as the confrontation unfolded.
“All persons participating in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d’etat,” it said in a social media post.
PiS-aligned figures echoed the accusation. Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a member of the European Parliament, wrote that “a coup d’état is underway in Poland”, alleging that people acting on behalf of the government had unlawfully entered the court and were preventing legally appointed judges from accessing the building.
Tusk defended his administration’s actions as part of an effort to reverse what he described as years of damage to the rule of law under PiS.
“Restoring the rule of law is our duty,” he wrote on social media.
“After years of PiS-led lawlessness, this is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and it requires decisive action. There is no other way.”
He warned that failure to resolve the dispute could threaten Poland’s European future, saying that otherwise “they will lead us out of the European Union”.
Nawrocki, an ally of the former PiS government, cancelled the remainder of his visit to Senegal and returned to Poland as the stand-off intensified. In a statement released at 4.11am, he said a “violation of the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland occurred”.
The president argued that the actions of individuals he described as “usurping power” were not legally recognised by the First President of the Supreme Court, a separate judicial institution. He called for the restoration of legal order, demanded that security forces leave the Tribunal and announced an urgent consultation aimed at stabilising the political situation.
Footage appeared to show Nawrocki attempting to push through security to enter the Tribunal as the confrontation unfolded.
Police said they had deployed officers after receiving letters from the Prosecutor General and Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, a Tribunal judge, warning of threats to judges and staff. Officers said protesters had thrown objects at them. Local media reported that three people had been arrested over attempts to enter the building.
PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński also joined demonstrators outside and attempted to force his way into the court, according to the supplied account.
Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek blamed Święczkowski for the confrontation, accusing him of treating the Tribunal as his “private fiefdom”. Żurek has also sought to have Święczkowski and vice-president Bartłomiej Sochański stripped of their judicial immunity so that criminal charges can be brought.
The dispute has deep roots in Poland’s troubled judicial reforms. European courts have previously ruled that the PiS parliamentary majority improperly appointed three judges to the Constitutional Tribunal. The European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union have also raised fundamental concerns about the body’s independence and impartiality.
Tusk’s government has sought to reverse reforms introduced under PiS, citing those rulings as justification. Nawrocki, meanwhile, refused earlier this year to swear in three judges appointed by parliament, while Święczkowski resisted allowing judges selected by the current parliamentary majority to assume their duties.
The resulting deadlock has turned the composition and authority of the Tribunal into a broader struggle over the limits of executive power, the legitimacy of judicial appointments and Poland’s obligations under European law.
The crisis has begun to reverberate through the diplomatic service. Jakub Kumoch, Poland’s ambassador to China, announced his resignation, saying the events in the country made it impossible for him to continue in the role. Paweł Soloch, ambassador to Romania, also resigned, citing what he described as an attempt to take over the Tribunal unlawfully.
Foreign minister Radosław Sikorski responded sharply to Kumoch’s departure, referring to what he called the “unprofessional conclusion” of his mission.
The United States has urged restraint. Tom Rose, Washington’s ambassador to Poland, warned that thousands gathering outside the court made an already dangerous situation more combustible.
“The last thing Poland needs is a confrontation that spirals into something far worse,” he said, while stressing that Washington supported Poland and was concerned about its stability, security and democratic future.
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, also weighed in, describing the situation as serious and framing the police operation as an attempt to defend what he called an “undemocratic EU”.
The immediate confrontation may yet be resolved through political or legal negotiations. But the competing claims of constitutional authority have exposed a profound institutional fracture in one of the EU’s most strategically important eastern members.
For Poland, the danger is not simply a confrontation outside a courthouse. It is that a dispute over restoring judicial independence could further undermine public confidence in the institutions meant to uphold it.
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