Bogdan Święczkowski said that, as president of the Constitutional Tribunal (TK), he alone is “the administrator of the Constitutional Tribunal building.” Any decisions made by usurpers are unlawful from start to finish, he declared.
On Friday evening, after word emerged that Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, as the longest-serving judge, was heading the Tribunal and had issued an order suspending the duties of Święczkowski as TK president and of TK Vice President Bartłomiej Sochański, Święczkowski arrived at the TK headquarters.
Police officers were already on the grounds adjacent to the TK building. The Warsaw Metropolitan Police said officers were carrying out statutory duties at the TK headquarters in connection with information provided by Tribunal judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska about the possibility of threats to the lives or health of TK judges and staff.
A protest was already under way in front of the TK fence. Święczkowski initially stood in front of the gate and addressed the police officers standing behind it.
He then turned to the protesters and said that Anna Korwin-Piotrowska “is usurping the ability to run the Tribunal,” which he said was “an unprecedented scandal.”
He added that “all decisions made by usurpers are unlawful from start to finish.”
“Tribunal Vice President Bartłomiej Sochański is here. What is happening here is unprecedented. The administrator of the Constitutional Tribunal building is solely and exclusively me,” Święczkowski declared.
He told the protesters that “the Tribunal is its people and its judges.” “Tomorrow all lawful judges will be here in front of the Constitutional Tribunal. We will demand to be let into the building. But I repeat: a building is only a building,” Święczkowski said.
Attempts were later made to open the gate leading onto the TK grounds. Święczkowski could be heard asking whether anyone in the crowd had a crowbar. One of the protesters, saying he was a locksmith, approached the fence; sparks were visible. Święczkowski stressed that the attempt to open the entrance was “on his orders.”
Eventually, after a security lock was cut, Święczkowski made his way onto the TK grounds. He showed police officers his TK president’s ID. He then used a megaphone to address protesters who were trying to follow him in, appealing for calm and for them to withdraw from the TK grounds.
“We are not going to fight with the police here, we will come back with the president. We cannot become animals like these people,” he said, and then returned to the outside of the fence.
Święczkowski was accompanied by, among others, lawmakers from the Law and Justice (PiS) party, including Piotr Gliński and Sebastian Kaleta. Gliński said Święczkowski had decided to withdraw “out of concern for the safety of everyone gathered.”
The entrance to the TK remained open, with police officers positioned just beyond it on the TK grounds. At one point, former Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, among others, walked through and stood in front of the officers.
In connection with the events at the TK, President Karol Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal on Friday evening and returned to Warsaw. Paweł Szefernaker, head of the President’s Cabinet, said the president would meet with Zbigniew Kapiński, First President of the Supreme Court. Święczkowski also arrived at the Presidential Palace in the evening. (PAP)
