Warsaw, Agency
Polish President Karol Nawrocki cut short his official trip to Senegal and returned to Warsaw on Friday after a dispute over the suspension of the head of the country's Constitutional Tribunal triggered protests and heightened political tensions.
Nawrocki said he had decided to return while his aircraft was flying over southern Spain, arguing that the situation required his presence in Poland.
"At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning," he wrote on X.
The crisis erupted after orders appeared on the Constitutional Tribunal's website temporarily removing its president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and vice-president, Bartlomiej Sochanski, from their duties.
However, the tribunal's official account on X rejected the move as illegal, insisting that both officials remained in office and describing the attempt to remove them as a "coup".
Police were deployed around the tribunal in Warsaw amid fears of unrest. Officers said three people have been detained after allegedly climbing over the court's perimeter fence, while some protesters were accused of throwing objects at police personnel.
The demonstrations drew supporters of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, with several politicians, including party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, gathering outside the court. They accused the government of attempting to take control of the judiciary and called on Nawrocki to intervene.
At the centre of the latest confrontation is Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, who said she had ordered Swieczkowski and Sochanski to stop performing their duties. She told public broadcaster TVP Info that seven judges were inside the tribunal and that police had not entered the building.
The dispute is part of a broader political and constitutional confrontation between Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-European coalition and the conservative PiS, which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023.
Parliament elected Korwin-Piotrowska and several other judges earlier this year, but Nawrocki refused to formally receive the oaths of some of them. His office maintains that they cannot legally assume their positions without the formal procedure, an interpretation rejected by the judges and the governing coalition.
Tusk defended his government's actions, saying efforts to restore judicial independence were necessary despite the difficulties involved.
"Restoring the rule of law is our obligation. After years of PiS lawlessness, this is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and it requires decisive action. There is no other way," he wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Zurek said he had submitted five applications seeking the lifting of judicial immunity for Swieczkowski and Sochanski. Four applications concern Swieczkowski and one relates to Sochanski. Zurek described the cases as serious criminal matters.
The Constitutional Tribunal has remained at the centre of Poland's prolonged dispute over judicial independence. Reforms introduced by the PiS government after it came to power in 2015 drew criticism from opposition parties and European institutions, which accused the party of undermining the independence of the judiciary.
Tusk's coalition, which came to power in 2023, has pledged to reverse those changes and restore the rule of law. However, its efforts have faced resistance from Nawrocki and his predecessor, both aligned with the conservative opposition.
The latest confrontation has further intensified the struggle over judicial appointments and the authority of the Constitutional Tribunal, with both sides accusing the other of undermining the country's constitutional order.
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