Riot police surround Warsaw’s Constitutional Tribunal as rival claims of authority, accusations of an attempted coup and senior diplomatic resignations deepen the country’s political turmoil.
General Article | October 2026
Chaos erupted at Poland’s highest court on Friday evening as a longstanding political confrontation between President Karol Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government escalated into a serious institutional crisis. Riot police surrounded the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw amid accusations of an attempted coup and an unlawful seizure of control of the court.
(Polish MP Grzegorz Braun removed the EU flag in front of the government building and set it on fire claiming that Poland would not display the symbols of what he called a dark organization. “This is Poland, not Brussels”.)
The confrontation intensified after a notice appeared on the tribunal’s official website announcing that its president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and vice-president, Bartlomiej Sochanski, had been suspended from their duties. Their profiles were subsequently removed from the website. Shortly afterwards, however, the tribunal’s official account on X declared that its website had been subjected to an unlawful takeover and insisted that both officials remained in office. It further warned that those involved in the actions were committing the crime of a coup d’état.
Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, the judge who ordered the suspensions, assumed the position of acting president of the tribunal, citing her seniority within the judiciary. The existing leadership rejected her claim to authority and maintained that Swieczkowski remained the legitimate president of the court. The competing claims exposed the depth of the institutional conflict and raised serious questions about the legality of the measures taken.
As the dispute unfolded, protesters gathered outside the courthouse, accusing Tusk’s government of attacking the Constitutional Tribunal and undermining the independence of the judiciary. Patryk Jaki, a member of the European Parliament representing the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), condemned the government’s actions. He accused Tusk of taking Poland backwards by several decades and reducing the country to second-class status. According to Jaki, the underlying reason for the confrontation was the tribunal’s ruling that Polish law takes precedence over European Union law.
( Polish President Karol Nawrocki returned early from Senegal, reportedly turning his plane around mid-flight, and arrived at the Constitutional Tribunal after midnight. In a dramatic confrontation, he challenged the legitimacy of the judges, declaring:“You are NOT judges of the Constitutional Tribunal!”)
The situation became increasingly tense when Bogdan Swieczkowski entered the tribunal’s grounds after supporters reportedly used a circular saw to cut through a locked gate. According to the Polish Press Agency, he subsequently left the premises and appealed for calm. Meanwhile, police established an additional security cordon around the courthouse, and three individuals were detained after climbing over the perimeter fence.
Police maintained that their presence had been requested by the prosecutor general and Korwin-Piotrowska because of concerns about potential threats to judges and court employees, as well as the possibility of public disorder. They denied entering the courthouse itself, insisting that their operations had been restricted to the surrounding grounds and public areas.
Prime Minister Tusk defended the government’s actions, presenting them as part of a broader effort to restore the rule of law after eight years of conservative government under PiS. He argued that the process was difficult and, at times, painful, but insisted that decisive measures were necessary to reverse what he described as years of lawlessness. He maintained that there was no alternative to confronting the judicial arrangements established by the previous administration.
President Nawrocki responded to the rapidly deteriorating situation by cutting short an official visit to Senegal and ordering his aircraft to return to Poland. Upon arriving in Warsaw, he held an emergency meeting with Zbigniew Kapinski, president of the Supreme Court, and announced plans to meet Swieczkowski. The Constitutional Tribunal is responsible for determining whether legislation complies with the Polish Constitution, whereas the Supreme Court deals with appeals against lower-court decisions and oversees the ordinary judicial system.
At the centre of the dispute is the composition and authority of the Constitutional Tribunal, which remains dominated by judges appointed during PiS’s eight years in government. Since taking office in 2023, Tusk has sought to reverse several judicial arrangements established by his conservative predecessors. His efforts have brought him into prolonged confrontation with Nawrocki and the PiS leadership.
One of the principal points of contention concerns five judges elected by parliament. Nawrocki has refused to administer their oaths of office, while the tribunal’s existing leadership has also challenged their entitlement to assume their positions. The resulting institutional deadlock has further intensified the political struggle over control of the judiciary.
The dispute has its origins in the wider conflict between Poland’s conservative government under PiS and the European Union. During its eight years in power, PiS introduced extensive judicial reforms that repeatedly attracted criticism from Brussels, which accused the party of weakening judicial independence and undermining the rule of law. PiS rejected those accusations, arguing that its reforms were necessary to strengthen national sovereignty and protect Poland against interference from European institutions.
The political differences between Nawrocki and Tusk also extend beyond domestic judicial affairs. In recent months, the president has adopted an increasingly confrontational position towards Ukraine, demanding that Kiev cease honouring nationalist paramilitary groups that collaborated with Nazi Germany during the early stages of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and participated in massacres of Polish civilians in territories that now form part of western Ukraine. Tusk, by contrast, has maintained a more accommodating approach towards Kiev, emphasising the importance of continued Western support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
The confrontation at the Constitutional Tribunal continued into the early hours of Saturday, 31 October 2026, with further developments reported throughout the night. At approximately 00:20 GMT, President Nawrocki arrived at the courthouse, where supporters greeted him with applause and chanted his name. Video footage reportedly showed him passing through a police cordon as officers attempted to push back sections of the crowd. Shortly afterwards, another video emerged showing the president caught up in a confrontation outside the building, which remained surrounded by police.
The head of the presidential office, Pawel Szefernaker, subsequently confirmed that Nawrocki had entered the Constitutional Tribunal building. Earlier reports in the Polish media had described a confrontation between members of the president’s security detail and police officers guarding the courthouse.
The political repercussions quickly spread beyond the immediate dispute. At 00:24 GMT, Jakub Kumoch, Poland’s ambassador to China, announced that he had submitted his resignation and requested to be recalled in response to what he described as the events unfolding in the country. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski criticised the diplomat for the unprofessional manner in which he had ended his assignment, declaring on X that he no longer represented the Republic of Poland.
At 00:51 GMT, Pawel Soloch, Poland’s ambassador to Romania, also announced his resignation in protest against what he described as an attempted unlawful takeover of the Constitutional Tribunal. His departure made him the second senior Polish diplomat to resign since police were deployed around the courthouse on Friday evening.
At 01:01 GMT, journalist Dominik Serwacki reported that additional police officers had arrived at the tribunal’s headquarters, indicating that security arrangements remained heightened as the confrontation continued.
The United States also expressed concern about the escalating situation. Shortly after midnight on Saturday, American Ambassador Tom Rose issued a carefully worded statement acknowledging that the two opposing sides were presenting sharply different accounts of what had happened and why. He called upon all parties to exercise restraint and avoid violence, warning that the last thing Poland needed was a confrontation that could develop into something considerably more dangerous.
The events at the Constitutional Tribunal have exposed an increasingly bitter struggle between Poland’s president and government over the authority of the judiciary, the interpretation of the Constitution and the country’s relationship with European institutions. With competing claims to the court’s leadership, police deployed around the courthouse, senior diplomats resigning and the president personally entering the centre of the confrontation, the crisis has become a major test of Poland’s political stability and constitutional order.
Authored By: Global GeoPolitics
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