Judges enter Poland's top court, suspend its president

Seven judges elected by Poland's lower house walked into the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw on Friday night, and one of them, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, declared herself in charge. She said she was suspending the court's president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, for a month. The sitting leadership called the move illegal. It is not clear what legal basis it rests on.

Riot police were deployed outside the building, and there were scuffles with protesters.

President Karol Nawrocki cut short a state visit to Senegal and arrived before dawn on Saturday with Zbigniew Kapiński, the first president of the Supreme Court. Videos circulating on social media show a struggle with a group of judges. The accounts conflict. The president's circle accuses the judges of violating the head of state's inviolability. Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek says Nawrocki forced his way in and attacked the judges.

Nawrocki left around 5 a.m. His chief of staff, Paweł Szefernaker, read a statement denouncing a "forcible takeover" of a constitutional body and saying the president would urgently consult the parliamentary groups.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk answered the same day in a message on his government's website. He condemned the attack on the judges and said calm cannot be won by giving in to lawlessness and violence. On the building itself, he said:

The duty of the executive, and therefore mine, is to ensure the tribunal's protection and the conditions it needs to work.

A dispute that began in 2015

That year the outgoing Sejm elected five judges, and then-President Andrzej Duda refused to swear them in. The new Sejm, controlled by Law and Justice (PiS), named five others. The legitimacy of several judges has been contested ever since. In 2021 the European Court of Human Rights found that the tribunal's makeup did not meet the requirement of a court established by law.

Duda named Święczkowski president of the tribunal in December 2024, and Tusk's government does not recognize him. Between March and April of this year the Sejm elected six more judges. Nawrocki swore in two and rejected four, who took their own oath on April 9. The European Court of Human Rights has issued an interim measure in favor of those four.

It is the first time in this dispute that judges chosen by the current majority have occupied the building, and that the head of state has turned up in person.

What is at stake

Two groups now claim to be the legitimate leadership of Poland's top court, and the president and prime minister are on opposite sides. Until that is settled, it is unclear who can issue valid rulings or whether laws sent to the tribunal can be reviewed. Poland is one of the European Union's largest economies, and the case weighs on the bloc's debate over the rule of law.

Korwin-Piotrowska has called a general assembly of judges for Nov. 3. The suspension of Święczkowski and Sochański would run until about Nov. 30.