Protests erupted late Friday night at Poland's Constitutional Court as it became known that the government has suspended the chief judge. It was a dramatic escalation in the long-standing battle between an EU-sceptic president and a pro-European head of government.
Everyone in the political class in Poland talks about democracy and the rule of law, but everyone more or less breaks the law. Still, it's not so bad that Poland is a banana republic. But the body that is supposed to be the ultimate safeguard for a functioning legal order in Poland – the Constitutional Court – has long had a tarnished reputation. Now it is practically in ruins.
Poland is, grossly simplified, divided between two political camps: on one side right-wing nationalists of various shades, on the other side pro-European democrats and moderate leftists.
For three years, the country has been ruled by the latter faction, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the head. The post of president, which is mainly purely ceremonial, has been held by the right-wing nationalist Karol Nawrocki for just over a year. But the president has veto power and uses it extensively, and this has meant that the Polish state leadership has been paralyzed in many respects.
For example, Nawrocki, in violation of the law, has refused to swear in judges and ambassadors appointed by parliament and the government.
Tusk's coalition government, in turn, has refused to recognize the Constitutional Court, as three of its 15 judges were illegally appointed by the previous right-wing populist government under the Law and Justice (PIS) party when it took office in 2015. The conflict thus has its origins in the decisions made more than ten years ago. It was just one of the many measures implemented by the PIS in order to dismantle the Polish rule of law.
Now Tusk has decided that it will be enough. He pushed through the impeachment of the president of the Constitutional Court, Bogdan Święczkowski, who is suspected of various crimes, and lost his immunity. He also saw to it that Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska was appointed acting president.
Unsurprisingly, the two sides blame each other for the political crisis. But President Nawrocki, who appeared at the Constitutional Court after midnight, cannot be said to have behaved very presidentially. He managed to push through the massive police cordon and once inside the building he pushed aside Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, who was trying to block his way into the court, and he shouted: "You are not a judge!". Korwin-Piotrowska was one of the judges Nawrocki refused to swear in.
Later in the night, Nawrocki left the court and called for urgent consultations with the political parties in the Sejm because of the "threat to the internal security of the Republic of Poland".
There are at least two ways of looking at the dramatic development. Nawrocki and most right-wing politicians claim that it is a coup d'état.
They believe that Tusk is violating Poland's constitution when his government removes judges from a tribunal that is supposed to be an independent control body over the executive branch.
Tusk's coalition, on the contrary, believes that the Constitutional Court became party politicized when the right-wing nationalist party Law and Justice (PIS) appointed a number of judges in violation of existing law. After Tusk's return to power in 2023, his government has attempted to restore the rule of law and install judges legitimately appointed by parliament, but President Nawrocki has thwarted this with his veto and refusal to swear in judges appointed by law.
Most lawyers commenting on the conflict believe that the current situation - where the president is so clearly violating the constitution - could not be left without action. Others are dubious, as government intervention, legally speaking, is questionable to say the least. Now it was the Minister of Justice who appointed Korwin-Piotrowska as chairman. But according to the constitution, it is the president who appoints the president of the court.
Tusk defended his action at X by saying that "restoring the rule of law is our duty after years of lawlessness, it is a difficult process, sometimes painful, that requires decisive action".
It remains to be seen what political consequences the nightly clash will have. Here, the outlook is not so favorable for Polish democracy. Tusk was under pressure from his supporters to fulfill a promise to resolve the constitutional crisis. But with his sword slash, he may have gone too hard.
With the help of the tumultuous images from the center of Warsaw, the right and ultra-right have gained ammunition against Tusk's government. The images have caused the previously divided so-called patriotic camp to unite against a common enemy. In addition to President Nawrocki, PIS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Slawomir Mentzen, leader of the ultra-right party Confederation gathered in the protest at the courthouse. Even Grzegorz Braun, leader of the neo-Nazi and openly pro-Russian Confederation of the Polish Crown, was seen in happy conversation with Kaczynski.
It is as someone noted: everyone who might be part of a future ultra-nationalist right-wing government met here. The next election is only a year away.
