Polish President Karol Nawrocki has accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk of plunging the nation into a “serious constitutional crisis” and committing “crimes against the Constitution” after a dramatic spat over the composition of the
nation’s top court over the weekend.
The long-simmering battle between Tusk’s left-liberal faction and the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party broke out into literal conflict in the early hours of Saturday morning, as riot police were deployed to the Constitutional Tribunal, as its chief judge was locked out of the building, and as an ally of the prime minister, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, having declared herself as the new leader and said she would be dismissing the PiS-aligned president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and vice president Bartłomiej Sochański of the top court.
In a sensational move, President Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal and immediately returned to Warsaw, where he physically forced his way into the Tribunal building in a bid to stop what he and his allies have claimed was an attempted “coup” over the judiciary by the Tusk-led government, which claims that the right to appoint judges lies solely with the Sejm parliament, while rejecting President Nawrocki’s claim that his office has final approval over any appointments.
The dispute continued into the week, with Korwin-Piotrowska continuing to claim control of the tribunal, despite PiS allies boycotting meetings, resulting in a farcical situation in which the liberal judges claim that 8 of 15 justices now represent a two-thirds quorum. Meanwhile, Święczkowski continues to claim that he is the court’s legitimate head and rejects Korwin-Piotrowska’s right to suspend him.
At a meeting of the National Security Council on Tuesday, President Nawrocki accused Tusk of “deciding to take over an independent institution of the Polish state by force on the eve of the holidays” and of having “exploited” police officers to “further a political agenda”.
“The rule of law cannot be restored by methods that themselves flagrantly violate the law… Full responsibility for this entire situation, for every police officer at the Tribunal, for all illegal actions such as the suspension of judges, illegal orders, and entering the Tribunal from the Prime Minister’s office, rests with one man, a man who is present in this room, a man I smile at, even though I do not understand, do not accept, and am speaking out against, namely Prime Minister Donald Tusk, ” he said according to the Super Express newspaper.
‘Coup D’état’: Polish Politicians Physically Clash as Globalist Tusk Gov’t Seeks Forceful Takeover of Constitutional Tribunalhttps://t.co/Pcgr6DkRCc
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 31, 2026
Nawrocki accused the PM of “a crime against the Constitution of the Republic of Poland” for seeking to subvert what he claims is his role as a check and balance by backing appointments to the court solely through parliament, without the president swearing them in.
“This is not how democrats operate, Mr Prime Minister… I will not ignore this; I will use all the prerogatives available to me, as well as the legitimacy and mandate given to me by society, to stop this attempt to overturn the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland,” he vowed.
Nawrocki, elected president last year, has continued his predecessor Andrzej Duda’s efforts to stymie the liberal Tusk agenda, using his veto power on legislation a record 41 times this year. However, Duda has questioned his move to selectively block judicial appointments by refusing to swear them in, expressing his interpretation that the process was meant to be merely ceremonial rather than a constitutional check and balance.
— Dominik Tarczyński MEP (@D_Tarczynski) October 31, 2026
Yet, with elections looming next year, others have suggested that Tusk is simply trying to replicate the previous PiS strategy and shackle any future right-wing government by packing the court before they come to power. Indeed, although Tusk’s pro-EU Civic Coalition party currently stands as the most popular single party in the country, recent polling has suggested that his left-liberal coalition government is set to lose power at the 2027 election.
A survey conducted last week — before the dramatic events outside the Constitutional Tribunal — found that Tusk’s party currently stands at 33.44 per cent, compared to 22.35 per cent for the conservative PiS party. However, with the addition of the nationalist Confederation Liberty and Independence and the Confederation of the Polish Crown parties, as well as former PiS PM Mateusz Morawiecki's Development Plus party, the right-wing stands at a collective 47.62 per cent and is likely to win enough seats to control the Sejm.
Conservative Nawrocki Wins Polish Presidential Election in Major Upset Against Globalist Warsaw Mayorhttps://t.co/qMPGWS9mvW
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 2, 2025
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