Poland Court Crisis: Police at Tribunal, Nawrocki Flies Back

Police entered the premises of Poland's Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw on Friday, and its president Bogdan Święczkowski and vice president Bartłomiej Sochański were suspended. President Karol Nawrocki turned his plane around on the way to Senegal and is returning. The tribunal calls it a coup d'état, while Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government says it is restoring the rule of law. This is a developing story, as of the evening of 30 October 2026.

What happened

• The suspension was announced by judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska and appeared on the tribunal's website.
• The tribunal's leadership rejects it, says the website was unlawfully taken over and says Korwin-Piotrowska is not a judge of the tribunal.
• Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek said he had requested the lifting of immunity for Święczkowski and Sochański.
• Police said officers entered after incidents outside the court, including dangerous objects thrown at them. Dozens of riot officers guarded the entrance.
• Supporters of the opposition Law and Justice party gathered outside, chanted "Tusk traitor" and breached a perimeter fence. Three people were detained.

What each side says

Nawrocki wrote on X: "At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning." Tusk wrote: "Restoring the rule of law is our duty. There is no other way." Former deputy foreign minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk accused the government of attempting a coup.

Why it blew up

A dispute over the court's composition has effectively paralysed it. Earlier this year Nawrocki refused to swear in three of six judges nominated by parliament, and Święczkowski would not let judges elected by the current majority take up their duties. The government accuses him of blocking appointments. Law and Justice governed from 2015 to 2023; after winning the 2023 election, Tusk pledged to resolve the dispute with Brussels over Poland's courts.

The word "coup" comes from the tribunal's leadership and the opposition. Social media claims that police are being moved in from across the country do not appear in the sources below.

Sources: Reuters / NBC News, Euronews, Kyiv Independent.

Photo: Constitutional Tribunal building in Warsaw. Wistula, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

By the Around Prague newsroom