Polish president says tribunal was forcibly seized, calls urgent consultations
Photo: Polish President Karol Nawrocki (Getty Images)
Polish President Karol Nawrocki described the overnight events surrounding the Constitutional Tribunal as a forcible takeover of a constitutional body. He is demanding that law enforcement officers be removed from the building and is convening urgent consultations with parliamentary parties, according to the Polish media outlet Onet.
"Last night, public order in the Republic of Poland was violated, and a constitutional body of the state was forcibly seized," Nawrocki said.
According to him, the First President of the Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapiński, also does not consider the actions of those who, in the president's view, are "usurping power" in the tribunal to be lawful.
Nawrocki called for law and order to be restored and for law enforcement officers deployed by the government to be removed from the tribunal premises. He also stressed that he had helped Bartłomiej Sochański, the tribunal's deputy president, whom he considers legitimate, enter the building.
Citing a threat to the country's internal security, the president called urgent consultations with representatives of parliamentary parties for October 31. According to Nawrocki, their purpose is to stabilize the political situation and restore constitutional order.
Following the president's statement, Sochański left his office. He said he had been assured that the president was no longer in the building and described this as deception. Tribunal President Bogdan Święczkowski, who was denied entry, called the events a "coup d'état."
Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek, meanwhile, said that the president and his associates had left the building and that it was now occupied by judges. According to him, the situation was stabilizing. Żurek described the president's behavior as scandalous and expressed hope that the prosecutor's office would respond to it. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński praised the police for preventing an escalation.
Meanwhile, lawmakers from the Law and Justice party (PiS) claim that Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the Presidential Chancellery, who entered the building together with Nawrocki, could be detained there.
The essence of the conflict is that Poland currently has two de facto factions of Constitutional Tribunal judges, each considering the other illegitimate.
Most of the current judges were appointed when the Law and Justice party was in power. Donald Tusk's government, which took office in late 2023, believes that PiS turned the tribunal into a politically dependent body and appointed some judges in violation of the law. Therefore, the government does not recognize the tribunal's rulings and is gradually changing its composition.
The current Sejm has already elected new judges. However, President Karol Nawrocki, who was backed by PiS, refused to swear in three of the six elected judges, while Tribunal President Bogdan Święczkowski barred them from taking office. It was the newly appointed judges who suspended Święczkowski and his deputy on the evening of October 30, after which police cordoned off the court building. The president and the opposition have described the events as a coup, while the government calls them a restoration of legality.
Whoever controls the tribunal will determine whether Tusk's government can implement its reforms, as the tribunal rules on whether laws comply with the constitution. During the night, Nawrocki forced his way into the court building, where clashes between protesters and police were taking place.
