The Constitutional Tribunal has become a flashpoint in an ongoing dispute between Poland's president and government Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki turned back while en route to Senegal on Friday after orders were issued suspending the president of the country’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) and his deputy from their duties. Opposition politicians described the move as a “coup d’état”, while Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended efforts to restore the rule of law. The suspension orders escalated a long-running dispute over the court’s leadership and the status of five judges elected by parliament but barred from hearing cases by the Tribunal’s president, Bogdan Święczkowski. Nawrocki has declined to receive their oaths of office. The five judges subsequently took their oaths at ceremonies in parliament, which Nawrocki and Święczkowski do not recognise as valid. The TK, a specialist court that rules on the constitutionality of Polish laws, has been at the center of judicial controversies for years, with the previous government led by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party accused of politicizing the institution by stacking it with loyal judges. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist coalition government, which came into power in late 2023, has consistently ignored the court’s rulings, questioning the body’s legitimacy. On Friday, one of those five judges, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, issued orders suspending Święczkowski and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, from their duties for one month. Protests outside the Tribunal’s headquarters turned violent. Citing her seniority as a judge, Korwin-Piotrowska invoked Article 130 of Poland’s Law on the Organisation of Common Courts as the legal basis for the suspensions. The provision allows a judge to be temporarily relieved of their duties if he or she “is detained after being caught in the act of committing an intentional crime, or if the nature of the act committed by the judge is such that the dignity of the court or the essential interests of the service require their immediate removal from the performance of official duties“. Nawrocki said he was returning as "at a moment like this, the President must be in Poland." Nawrocki made the announcement on X after police entered the Constitutional Tribunal building in Warsaw. Demonstrators outside had begun throwing objects The Tribunal's X profile carried a message saying its website had been illegally taken over and that Święczkowski remained the body's president. Battle over the Tribunal The court's spokesperson said Święczkowski remained at the Constitutional Tribunal's helm "whatever someone might think up," and said the police intervention was planned. "I suspect those who were skeptical about the Constitutional Tribunal president’s warning regarding a coup d’état are no longer laughing," Weronika Ścibór told pro-opposition TV channel Republika. Korwin-Piotrowska, who also assumed the acting presidency of the Tribunal, said her actions were justified by "overriding constitutional necessity" and accused Święczkowski of a range of improprieties including preventing the court's General Assembly from being convened. She also accused him of preventing five judges—whose status Święczkowski does not recognize—from adjudicating, as well as of violating the rules for appointing judges to hear cases and of sidelining cases of public importance to prioritize others for political reasons. Political standoff A long-running political dispute over the Constitutional Tribunal has effectively paralysed the institution. The appointment of judges to the Constitutional Tribunal has become the focal point of a standoff between Poland's government and president. The court's composition and the process of appointing its judges were prominent issues in a rule-of-law dispute between the previous right-wing government and the EU. The European Commission withheld tens of billions of euros in funding for Poland over accusations of democratic backsliding and politicization of the judiciary. Restoring judicial impartiality became one of Tusk's main campaign pledges in the 2023 parliamentary election that brought his coalition government to power. Tusk said that restoring the rule of law was the government's duty and required decisive action following years of what he described as lawlessness under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government. "Restoring the rule of law is our duty. After years of lawlessness under PiS, this is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and requires decisive action. There is no alternative," he wrote on X on Friday evening.
The Constitutional Tribunal has become the front line in a deepening dispute between Poland's president and government. (PAP)
