Polish police secured the Constitutional Tribunal on Friday as dozens of protesters gathered to demonstrate against the suspension of the court’s president by the country’s pro-European government, which they viewed as wrongful.
Police said they detained three people after some protesters breached the tribunal’s fence, while others threw objects at officers.
President Karol Nawrocki, who was on his way to Senegal for a state visit, said he had turned his flight around because of the situation.
“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.
Dispute over judicial independence
Poland’s top judicial institutions, including the Constitutional Tribunal, have been at the centre of a dispute between the current pro-European government and the main opposition party, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS).
Critics in Poland and the European Union have accused PiS, which governed the country from 2015 to 2023, of exerting political control over key judicial institutions, including the Constitutional Tribunal.
The party’s judicial reforms led the European Union to impose fines on Poland.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European government came to power in 2023, pledging to restore the independence of the judiciary.
However, its efforts have been blocked by vetoes from two successive presidents aligned with PiS, including Nawrocki.
Suspension of tribunal president sparks backlash
News of the suspension of Constitutional Tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski was published on the court’s website at about 6pm local time.
The website went down shortly afterwards, preventing The Associated Press from independently verifying the official reasons given for his suspension.
Święczkowski became head of the tribunal under the PiS government. Tusk has accused him of blocking judges elected by the parliamentary majority from taking up their positions at the court.
“Restoring the rule of law is our obligation,” Tusk wrote on X on Friday evening.
“After years of lawlessness under PiS this is a difficult process, sometimes painful and it requires decisive action. There is no other way.”
Speaking about the future of the Constitutional Tribunal at Campus Polska in August, Tusk said his government had a plan to ensure the court would again be staffed by lawfully appointed judges, while acknowledging that his approach might not be acceptable to everyone.
PiS politicians, whose party is currently the largest opposition force, criticised Święczkowski’s suspension.
“This is a blatant, criminal attack on the constitutional order,” former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro wrote on X on Friday evening.
“That is why I call for resistance that will be loud, firm, solidary and fearless.”
