President Karol Nawrocki, who appeared at the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) overnight from Friday to Saturday, has announced urgent consultations with parliamentary forces in response to the crisis there. Prime Minister Donald Tusk commented on the upheaval at the Tribunal: “Restoring the rule of law is our duty.”
The crisis at the Tribunal began after word emerged on Friday afternoon that a suspension of duties had been ordered for TK President Bogdan Święczkowski and TK Vice President Bartłomiej Sochański. Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, as the judge with the longest judicial service, was declared the person heading the Tribunal.
After Korwin-Piotrowska reported a possible threat to the lives or health of Tribunal judges and employees, police appeared on the Tribunal’s grounds, though not inside the building itself. A crowd gathered in front of the Tribunal tried to force its way onto the grounds, and a security fastening on a gate in the fence was cut. Święczkowski then entered the grounds and, through a megaphone, addressed the protesters trying to follow him in, appealing for calm and for them to withdraw from the grounds. “We will not fight the police here, we will come back with the president. We cannot become animals like those people,” he said, then returned to the other side of the fence.
In response to these events, President Karol Nawrocki, who was traveling to Senegal, interrupted his flight, returned to Poland and arrived at the Tribunal’s headquarters. Earlier, he held consultations with Supreme Court First President Zbigniew Kapiński and with Bogdan Święczkowski. After those meetings, the president, together with Kapiński and TK Vice President Bartłomiej Sochański, among others, entered the Tribunal building.
Judge Maciej Berek published a recording that shows President Nawrocki pushing his way between people standing in the doorway of the Tribunal building. The recording shows judges elected to the Tribunal, including Krystian Markiewicz.
“Maciej Berek has just documented the commission of a crime, when usurpers tried to prevent the President of Poland from entering the Constitutional Tribunal and violated his inviolability,” presidential spokesman Rafał Leśkiewicz wrote on X.
According to Berek, however, President Nawrocki “did not enter the Tribunal building” but “physically attacked TK judge A. Korwin-Piotrowska and the other TK judges.” Berek later wrote that Korwin-Piotrowska “proposed a meeting with the President today, in conditions that are safe and befitting the holders of public offices.” “The President chose the path of physical confrontation with TK Judge A. Korwin-Piotrowska,” he added.
Another recording from inside the Constitutional Tribunal building also appeared in the media. It shows President Nawrocki and, among others, seven people elected by the current Sejm (the lower house of parliament) as TK judges. On the recording from the corridor, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska can be heard saying: “We are judges of the Constitutional Tribunal.”
“You are not TK judges,” President Nawrocki replies, addressing Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, Krystian Markiewicz and Maciej Berek, who are visible in the footage. Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the Chancellery of the President, who accompanied him, added that he “sees only one TK judge here,” pointing to Sławomir Patyra. “Madam, you are carrying out a coup d’état, I don’t know if you are aware of that,” Bogucki said to Korwin-Piotrowska.
Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek later said that prosecutor Andrzej Piaseczny had arrived at the Tribunal. “Anyone who breaks the law will stand before a court,” Żurek stressed. On TVN24, he said he was troubled by the president’s behavior and expressed hope that prosecutors would take action. “It is unacceptable for a person protected by immunity to storm in and attack judges,” he said.
After the president’s visit to the Tribunal, presidential minister Paweł Szefernaker read a statement from Karol Nawrocki in front of the Tribunal.
“Tonight, the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland was violated and a constitutional organ of the state was seized by force,” Szefernaker read.
As Nawrocki said in the statement, he held consultations with Supreme Court First President Zbigniew Kapiński, who “likewise does not recognize as legal the actions taken by persons usurping power” at the Tribunal.
The president also called for the legal order to be restored and for the security services to leave the Tribunal grounds.
“In view of the threat to Poland’s internal security, I am convening urgent consultations today with representatives of the parliamentary forces in order to address the political situation and restore constitutional order,” Szefernaker read from the president’s statement.
Earlier, Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated: “Restoring the rule of law is our duty.” “After years of lawlessness under Law and Justice (PiS), it is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and requires decisive action. There is no other way,” the head of government stressed on X.
After 4 a.m. on Saturday, Bogdan Święczkowski made another attempt to enter the Tribunal building. Police continuously block the entrance to the Tribunal grounds, and a demonstration involving opposition politicians is under way around the Tribunal’s gates.
“A building can be taken by deceit, but a constitutional organ of the state cannot be taken. The Tribunal is made up of judges appointed in accordance with the law, not usurpers who got in through the back gate with the assistance of government bodyguards and surrounded themselves with a police cordon out of fear of the Poles,” Święczkowski said at the demonstration.
At about 5 a.m., as TK judges reported, the president, the head of his chancellery Zbigniew Bogucki and Judge Sochański left the Constitutional Tribunal building.
In its current term, the Sejm has elected eight TK judges, bringing the Tribunal’s membership up to 15. President Nawrocki administered the oath of office to three of them: Magdalena Bentkowska and Dariusz Szostek, elected in March, and Sławomir Patyra, elected in June.
The president did not administer the oath to five people elected by the Sejm as TK judges: Krystian Markiewicz, Marcin Dziurda, Maciej Taborowski and Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, all elected in March, and Maciej Berek, elected in September. All of them took the oath at ceremonies in the Sejm, using a formula stating that they were doing so “before the president.” Neither the president nor the TK president recognizes this as an oath of office, and these judges have not been allowed to adjudicate. (PAP)
