Polish President Turns Plane Around and Returns to Warsaw as Top Court Chief’s Suspension Draws Protesters
President Karol Nawrocki cut short a state visit to Senegal and returned to Warsaw after Poland's Constitutional Tribunal said its president had been suspended, a move that drew protesters to the court building and a sharp exchange between the president and Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki turned his plane around on Friday while flying to Senegal for a state visit and returned to Warsaw, after Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal said its president had been suspended. Protesters gathered outside the court building in Warsaw, and police secured the site.
The tribunal’s website said its longest-serving judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, had suspended tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski and taken charge of the court. Bloomberg reported that Święczkowski and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, were served with one-month suspensions. The tribunal’s website went down soon after the notice appeared, and The Associated Press could not independently verify the official reasons given for the suspension.
“At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning,” Nawrocki wrote on X. Police said they detained three people after some protesters breached the tribunal’s fence and others threw objects at officers.
Polish media reported that Nawrocki went to the tribunal building early Saturday after meeting with Supreme Court First President Zbigniew Kapiński, and that accounts differed over what happened at the entrance. The tribunal’s leadership rejected the suspension: a statement on the court’s social media account said the court’s website had been unlawfully seized, insisted Święczkowski remained president, and accused those involved of attempting a coup.
A court dispute that has run for years
Poland’s top judicial bodies have been a point of conflict between the pro-European government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the national-conservative Law and Justice party, known as PiS. Critics in Poland and the European Union accuse PiS, which led the country from 2015 to 2023, of imposing political control over judicial institutions, including the Constitutional Tribunal. The PiS changes led the EU to impose fines on Poland.
Tusk’s government came to power in 2023 with a promise to restore the independence of the judiciary. Since then, its efforts have been blocked by veto by two successive presidents aligned with PiS, including Nawrocki. Last month, parliament appointed Tusk ally Maciej Berek to the tribunal. Reuters reported that the dispute has effectively paralysed the court, with the government and the president refusing to recognise appointees put forward by the other side.
Each side rejects the other’s claim
Tusk defended the move on Friday evening. “Restoring the rule of law is our obligation,” he wrote on X. “After years of lawlessness under PiS this is a difficult process, sometimes painful and it requires decisive action. There is no other way.”
Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said he had sought the lifting of immunity for Święczkowski and Sochański, accusing them of preventing newly elected judges from performing their duties. Jakub Kumoch, Poland’s ambassador to China, said on X on Friday that he was resigning in reaction to the events in Warsaw.
Politicians from PiS, now the largest opposition force, condemned the 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.”
Reporting based on coverage by CNN, Reuters, Bloomberg, and Polish media reports.
