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The political standoff over Poland's highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal, has escalated after the government tried to remove two of its leading judges and seek criminal charges against them. Polish President Karol Nawrocki said he would hold consultations with all parliamentary parties on Saturday “to stabilize the political situation and restore constitutional order.”
Polish Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who also serves as prosecutor general, told reporters that he had sent a request to lift judicial immunity from the chairman of the Constitutional Tribunal, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartosz Sochanski (who were appointed to their posts during the previous government from the right-wing Law and Justice party), in order to then bring them to criminal responsibility.
“This tribunal has become private property; we must restore its proper functioning,” AFP quoted Zurek as saying.
Before this, it became known that the oldest judge of the Constitutional Tribunal, Anna Korvin-Piotrovskaya, removed Bogdan Svechkovsky from his duties and took over the leadership of the tribunal, Reuters reports.
People began to gather in front of the tribunal building to protest against this decision. Special police units were sent to prevent them from entering the tribunal building. Some protesters tried to break through police barriers, AFP reports. According to the police, three people were detained who tried to enter the territory of the tribunal complex.
What the parties claim
Donald Tusk's government has been trying for weeks to force the resignation of judges appointed by the previous cabinet from the Law and Justice party, which was in power from 2015 to 2023.
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The Constitutional Tribunal itself said that the two judges whom the government intends to prosecute remain legally appointed senior judges of that authority.
“All persons involved in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d’état,” the tribunal said in a statement.
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Donald Tusk wrote on social networks: “Restoring the rule of law is our duty. After many years of lawlessness under the Law and Justice Party, this process is proving difficult, sometimes painful, and requires decisive action. Иного пути нет».
Karol Nawrocki, who enjoys the support of the Law and Justice party, turned around his plane en route to Senegal for the Summer Youth Olympic Games and returned to Warsaw.
On Saturday morning, Nawrocki, who broke into the building of the Constitutional Tribunal at night, wrote that “at night the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland was violated and a constitutional state body was forcibly seized.”
“Due to the threat to internal security,” the Polish president called for urgent consultations on Saturday “with representatives of parliamentary forces to stabilize the political situation and restore constitutional order.”
The essence of the conflict
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The government formed by the Law and Justice Party came to power in 2015 and quickly appointed judges to the Constitutional Tribunal to ensure a majority there, since this body has the power to determine the legality of regulations adopted.
Europe's leading judicial institutions, the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, subsequently ruled that PiS had improperly elected three judges because they filled positions that had already been legally filled by the previous parliament.
The European courts concluded that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal had ceased to be an “independent and impartial judicial body.” The government of Donald Tusk, relying on these decisions, stopped publishing the tribunal's rulings.
After coming to power in 2023, Tusk promised to depoliticize the judiciary, but he failed to reverse changes made under PiS. This was partly because Nawrocki and his predecessor Andrzej Duda, also supported by PiS, used the presidential veto to block his initiatives.
In addition, Nawrocki refused to swear in five judges of the Constitutional Tribunal elected by parliament since March this year, citing alleged irregularities in their selection procedure.
One of these judges is Anna Korvin-Petrovskaya, who removed the chairman of the tribunal, Svenchkovsky, from his post and announced that she would act as his duties.
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Earlier this month, Karol Nawrocki received a recommendation from the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters, that judges be sworn in so they can begin serving on the tribunal.
Justice Minister Żurek said that criminal charges should be opened against Święczkowski and his deputy because they are obstructing judges from administering justice.
Some of Tusk's supporters blame him for his lack of decisive action to reverse the reforms carried out during the PiS era.
Parliamentary elections in Poland are scheduled for next year, and some see the moves as an attempt to boost Tusk's popularity among voters.
However, his actions were also criticized. In September, Tusk nominated politician Maciej Berek, a lawyer who served as a minister in his government, as a candidate for tribunal judge.
Lawyer Marcin Matczak, a critic of PiS-era judicial reforms who has previously said he considers Święczkowski the worst tribunal chairman in its history, said the latter's removal had no legal basis “for a million reasons.”
“In my opinion, today’s actions regarding the Constitutional Tribunal put an end to both this body and the issue of the rule of law for the next two decades,” Professor Matczak wrote on social networks.
“The deployment of armed police and the legal interpretation that the Minister of Justice can, by his decision, remove the President of the Constitutional Tribunal will have serious consequences against the rule of law for many years to come,” he added.
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