Police enter Poland's Constitutional Tribunal as president cuts short Senegal trip

Police officers entered the grounds of the Constitutional Tribunal, Poland's top court for constitutional review, in Warsaw on Friday, 30 October. The move has heightened political tension in the country, and President Karol Nawrocki has interrupted a visit to Senegal to return home.

Police explanation

Police said the actions, which are provided for by law, followed information from judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska. She had reportedly warned of possible threats to the lives and health of judges and staff, as well as a risk of public order disruption. Police stressed that their officers are not interfering in the tribunal's work and are taking no action against its security staff.

At the same time, a notice appeared on the tribunal's website announcing that the duties of its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and vice-president, Bartłomiej Sochański, had been suspended.

The president's reaction

Nawrocki wrote on the social network X that at such a moment the president must be in Poland, announcing that he was stopping his flight to Senegal and returning.

Opposition and government positions

Opposition representatives have described the events as an attack on the judiciary. Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, urged the president to use his powers to halt what is happening. Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government justifies its actions by the need to restore the rule of law and to enable lawfully elected judges to carry out their duties.

The dispute between Tusk's government and the opposition over the tribunal's work and the way judges are appointed has gone on for a long time and is one of the sharpest political disputes in the country.

A claim in the original publication about European Union support for Tusk and its silence on the events has not been independently confirmed.