While Poland’s conservative president, Karol Nawrocki, was flying to Senegal, police dispatched by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s justice minister took control of the grounds of the country’s highest constitutional court. Tusk, a pro-EU liberal and former president of the European Council, governs with a coalition that includes Poland’s left-wing parties.
Police locked out the court’s chief judge, Bogdan Święczkowski, while a judge allied with Tusk declared herself in charge. Nawrocki turned his plane around, returned to Warsaw, and denounced the operation as a forcible takeover of a constitutional body. Poland’s conservatives are calling it a coup, accusing the ruling coalition of using the justice ministry and police to seize control of the court that can strike down its laws.
Shortly after 6 p.m. on Friday, orders signed by Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska appeared on the court’s website. They suspended the chief judge and his deputy for one month and named Korwin-Piotrowska acting head of the court, on the grounds that she has the longest judicial career of any sitting judge.
Korwin-Piotrowska heads Themis, a judges’ association that challenged the previous conservative government over her removal from office. That government’s justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, removed her as vice president of the regional court in Opole in 2017. Tusk’s justice ministry appointed her president of the same court in October 2024, and his parliamentary majority elected her to the constitutional court in March 2026.
Polish law requires incoming constitutional court judges to take their oath before the president, but she took hers at a ceremony in parliament. Nawrocki has never accepted that oath, and neither he nor the court’s leadership recognizes her as a judge.
Police said they acted on letters from Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek and Korwin-Piotrowska. Żurek, who also serves as Poland’s chief prosecutor, is a former judge and was a prominent critic of the previous conservative government’s judicial reforms. After taking office in 2025, he removed 46 court presidents and vice presidents.
In January, Poland’s Supreme Court ruled that he had acted unlawfully in dismissing three judicial officials. Korwin-Piotrowska’s letter warned of possible threats to the lives and health of judges and staff. Officers in riot gear secured the grounds inside the court’s fence and prevented the chief judge from entering. Police said they did not enter the building.
Both suspended judges have ties to the conservative party. Chief Judge Bogdan Święczkowski served as the top deputy to the previous conservative government’s justice minister and was elected to parliament on the party’s ticket in 2011. His deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, joined the party in 2017 and ran for mayor of Szczecin on its ticket the following year. On the evening of their suspensions, Żurek sent the court five requests, totaling 224 pages, to lift their immunity from prosecution: four concerning Święczkowski and one concerning Sochański. In 2025, the court’s judges had rejected an earlier request from Żurek to lift Święczkowski’s immunity.
To suspend the two judges, Korwin-Piotrowska relied on Article 130 of the law that governs Poland’s ordinary courts, not the law governing the constitutional court. That provision lets the head of a court, or the justice minister, suspend a judge for up to a month. When the judge being suspended is himself the head of a court, only the justice minister can do it. The law does not give that power to an individual judge.
Sochański said he knew of no law that allows anyone to interfere with the court in this way, and he told the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita that a coup was under way. The court’s official account on X stated that Korwin-Piotrowska is not a judge of the court, that Święczkowski remains its chief judge, and that everyone taking part was committing the crime of a coup d’état.
Tusk says the suspensions were necessary to restore the rule of law and blames Święczkowski for the standoff. He accuses the chief judge of refusing to seat judges elected by the current parliament and Nawrocki of refusing to swear them in. The dispute dates to 2015, when the incoming conservative government and outgoing liberal majority clashed over five judicial appointments.
In October, the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional law, issued an opinion saying the president should accept the new judges’ oaths. Nawrocki’s spokesman responded that its opinions are advisory and nonbinding.
In a televised address on Saturday, Tusk vowed no compromise with lawlessness. He said no politician, including the president, had the right to enter a court to instruct or intimidate judges, and accused Russian bots of backing his opponents.
Control of the Tribunal would strengthen Tusk’s hold on the state. Its rulings on the constitutionality of laws are final. Tusk controls the Cabinet and a narrow Sejm majority, but his coalition lacks the three-fifths majority needed to override Nawrocki’s veto, which blocked two abortion bills passed in October. A Tribunal dominated by Tusk’s appointees would remove a major judicial check on his government. The Supreme Court remains outside his control. Its First President, Zbigniew Kapiński, met Nawrocki at the presidential palace on Friday night.
Nawrocki entered the Tribunal early Saturday as protesters gathered outside (CNN). He told Korwin-Piotrowska, Krystian Markiewicz, and Maciej Berek that they were not judges of the Tribunal, then convened urgent consultations over a security threat. Two of Tusk’s coalition partners, Poland 2050 and the Polish People’s Party (PSL), attended alongside opposition parties. Tusk’s Civic Coalition stayed away. The opposition Confederation party proposed resetting the Tribunal and shortening the Sejm’s term.
Brussels backed the government. A European Commission spokesperson said appointing eight new members lies within the Sejm’s constitutional powers, and the Commission urged Nawrocki to accept them. The European Conservatives and Reformists group’s co-chairs condemned the government’s actions as a grave violation of the rule of law and backed Nawrocki. U.S. Ambassador Tom Rose called the dispute an unprecedented confrontation over state power and judicial independence. He urged restraint and said Washington would not interfere.
The confrontation follows other disputes over EU authority. On Jan. 9, Nawrocki vetoed legislation implementing the EU’s Digital Services Act, citing administrative censorship. He broadly supported the act but opposed a government-added procedure for blocking online content (EDRi). The Commission subsequently urged Poland to implement it. Tusk’s government has also resisted Brussels on migration. When the EU migration pact took effect on June 12, the interior ministry refused to accept relocated migrants or pay related costs. On Oct. 28, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński floated EU exit negotiations by nationalist-led governments as leverage for reform, while saying his party had no plans to leave.
As of Nov. 1, the Tribunal has two rival heads. Korwin-Piotrowska controls the building and said Nawrocki could enter only alone, without Święczkowski or Kapiński. Święczkowski has issued a competing order governing court operations. The judges’ General Assembly is scheduled for Nov. 3, and Article 130 requires a disciplinary court to uphold or cancel the suspensions before month’s end.
Protesters returned to the court for a third day on Sunday, and Święczkowski, turned away again at the gate, vowed to come back every day as Nawrocki continued to challenge the takeover. The outcome rests with the courts and the parliamentary elections due in 2027.
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