Polish President Karol Nawrocki is due to receive representatives of the majority and opposition parties on Saturday to try to find a solution to the political and institutional crisis, which took a dramatic turn the day before with the intervention of the police at the Constitutional Court in Warsaw.
“Due to the threat to the internal security of the Republic of Poland, today I am convening urgent consultations with the participation of representatives of the parliamentary forces,” Karol Nawrocki said in a statement read early Saturday morning before the Constitutional Court by his chief of staff, Pawel Szefernaker.
Deemed too dependent on political power by the European Union, the Constitutional Court was at the heart of a standoff between Brussels and the nationalists of PiS (Law and Justice) during their mandates (2015-2023). As early as 2015, the PiS government had appointed openly politically engaged judges, whom neither the European Union nor the current head of government Donald Tusk (center right) recognize. Since returning to power in 2023, Donald Tusk, former president of the European Council, has promised to resolve the crisis. Without success so far, since the nominations of his government and the Diet (lower house of Parliament) to the Tribunal have not been ratified by the Head of State, who is obstructing them.
After yet another blockage - the impossibility of voting on the court's budget - events suddenly accelerated on Friday. The Constitutional Court in Warsaw was besieged by many supporters of the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. Riot police invaded the court site to block access. The demonstrators forced the gates but were unable to advance in the face of the police. The Minister of Justice - also Attorney General - requested the lifting of the immunity of his president appointed by the PiS and a judge newly appointed by the majority announced to act in the interim.
“Restoring the rule of law is our duty,” said Donald Tusk. “After years of illegality under PiS, this is a difficult, sometimes painful process that requires resolute action. There is no other way.” The President of the Republic, the nationalist Karol Nawrocki, was on board a plane bound for Senegal where he was to attend the opening of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG). He immediately turned around and went to court in the evening. The former boxer managed to enter with difficulty, accused of having pushed judges who tried to prevent him, according to television images. He left late in the night from Friday to Saturday.
PiS supporters have been demonstrating for several weeks in front of the Constitutional Court to support the judges appointed by the nationalist right when it still governed. “It’s a coup d’état by Prime Minister Donald Tusk (...). He is trampling on our constitutional rights,” one of these demonstrators, Tomasz Zaleski, castigated an AFP journalist. On Friday after the police intervention, PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski and other leaders from the right and far-right joined them. There were still several dozen of them on Saturday morning, gathered in the rain, noted an AFP photographer.
As for the governance of the Constitutional Court, confusion remained total at the end of a restless night: one of the judges appointed by the current government, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, announced the suspension of her functions of the controversial president of the court, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and indicated that she would take over in the interim. But the latter has the support of the opposition and the president and for his part claims to remain in office. The head of state's chief of staff accused Donald Tusk on Saturday of "causing a state crisis" and "endangering Polish security."
The Polish ambassadors to China and Romania, close to the nationalists, announced their resignation. Since his election in June 2025, President Nawrocki has refused to ratify the government's appointment of dozens of diplomats. The United States Ambassador in Warsaw, Tom Rose, deplored on his X account “an unprecedented confrontation” over “the independence and authority of a constitutional institution”.
