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Polish President Karol Nawrocki has called emergency talks with parliamentary parties, saying the country’s constitutional order was violated during an overnight confrontation at the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw, Anadolu Agency reported.
“Tonight, there was a violation of the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland and a forcible takeover of a constitutional state body,” Nawrocki said.
He made the statement after spending several hours inside the disputed court building. Nawrocki had cut short an official visit to Senegal and returned to Warsaw late Friday as tensions over control of the tribunal intensified.
The president warned that the confrontation threatened Poland’s internal security. He said he was convening urgent consultations with representatives of parliamentary forces to stabilise the political situation and restore constitutional order.
After returning to Warsaw, Nawrocki met Zbigniew Kapinski, First President of the Supreme Court, before going to the Constitutional Tribunal at around 1 a.m.
Inside the building, he confronted Anna Korwin-Piotrowska and other judges whose status he and the tribunal’s previous leadership reject. “We are judges of the Constitutional Tribunal,” Korwin-Piotrowska told him. “You are not judges of the Constitutional Tribunal,” Nawrocki replied, according to video recorded inside the building.
Nawrocki remained at the tribunal until shortly before 5 a.m. He later called for police to leave the court grounds and said he had enabled Bartlomiej Sochanski, whom he recognises as the tribunal’s lawful vice president, to enter the building.
Dispute over the tribunal’s leadership
The confrontation escalated a dispute between Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government over the legitimacy and control of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal.
The standoff began Friday after Korwin-Piotrowska announced the temporary suspension of Tribunal President Bogdan Swieczkowski and Sochanski.
The tribunal’s official account on the US social media platform “X”, controlled by the previous leadership, rejected the move and said its website had been unlawfully taken over. It also accused those involved of carrying out a “coup d’état”.
Police were deployed around the tribunal but said they had not entered the building.
Tusk defended efforts to change institutions shaped during the eight years the Law and Justice party was in government, saying that restoring the rule of law required “decisive action”.
Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Zurek criticised Nawrocki’s conduct inside the tribunal and called for prosecutors to examine the incident.
