Poland’s Crisis Deepens as PM Tusk Faces Power Grab Claims

A dramatic standoff at Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal late Friday—bringing riot police and protesters into the streets and prompting President Karol Nawrocki to turn his aircraft around and head back to Warsaw—has reopened a fierce national argument: Is Prime Minister Donald Tusk defending the rule of law, or crossing constitutional boundaries?

The confrontation followed the tribunal’s announcement that its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, had been suspended. Allies of Tusk’s government called the move an essential step toward rebuilding judicial independence. Opponents, however, condemned it as an unconstitutional seizure of power.

Marcin Przydacz, who leads the International Policy Bureau in Nawrocki’s office, criticized the government during an appearance on European TV Monday. “Even lawyers who are close to the Tusk government say that there’s absolutely no legal basis for such behavior,” he said.

The constitutional dispute has now spilled into Poland’s diplomatic service, with at least three ambassadors stepping down in protest. Przydacz, a former lawmaker from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, said Monday that Krzysztof Szczerski, Poland’s ambassador to the United Nations since 2021, had resigned. His departure followed the weekend resignations of the ambassadors to China and Romania.

“This crisis didn’t begin on Friday,” said Simone Rodan‑Benzaquen, senior envoy to Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Poland has been living with a deeply compromised Constitutional Tribunal for more than a decade.”

Rodan-Benzaquen said the latest clash is part of a much longer institutional breakdown. Although parliament has continued to appoint judges under Poland’s constitution, several nominees have been prevented from assuming office during an extended power struggle involving the government, the presidency and the tribunal.

“This isn’t simply a case of Tusk deciding to pack a functioning, independent court ahead of an election,” Rodan-Benzaquen told News Media. “There is a genuine institutional crisis that predates his government, and a legitimate question of how to resolve it.”

The underlying tensions became impossible to ignore Friday when Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska suspended Święczkowski and his deputy. Demonstrators gathered outside the tribunal, while Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal and returned to Poland. Three people were detained after some protesters clashed with police near the court complex.

Rodan-Benzaquen said doubts about the operation extend beyond the opposition, warning that Friday’s events “raise serious questions about the legality and proportionality of the methods being used.”

Government opponents have portrayed the confrontation as an attack without precedent on Poland’s constitutional system. “My former boss, Margaret Thatcher, would have been absolutely appalled by what we’re witnessing in Poland,” said Nile Gardner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation. “This is clearly a crisis for Poland and an attempted coup by Donald Tusk.”

Gardner went further, describing the episode as bearing “all the hallmarks of a Soviet-style coup operation.” He accused Tusk of waiting until Nawrocki was outside the country before moving against the tribunal, arguing that the prime minister was deepening political instability ahead of next year’s election. “It’s the sort of thing you’d expect actually from a third world dictator,” he said.

Other analysts reject the coup narrative. Boštjan Udovič, chair of international relations at the University of Ljubljana, said the dispute reflects Tusk’s effort to reverse judicial arrangements that critics of the former PiS government regard as incompatible with Poland’s constitution and European legal standards.

“Tusk wants to restore the situation as required by the constitution and the international institutions,” Udovič said. “I think that he hoped the transition would be easier.”

Tusk has defended the government’s approach as an attempt to reestablish the rule of law. He accused Nawrocki and the tribunal of unlawfully preventing judges chosen by parliament from taking their seats. “The solution to the conflict is simple,” Tusk said Monday. “The president recognizes the judges legally elected by [parliament], because that is what the Constitution stipulates.” He also accused Nawrocki of “choosing forceful confrontation, which could cost Poland very dearly. A democratic state under the rule of law cannot yield to violence.”

“Restoring the rule of law is essential,” Rodan-Benzaquen said, cautioning against reducing the conflict to a partisan contest. “But the legitimacy of that restoration depends not only on its objectives, but also on the legality of the means used to achieve it.”

As Poland’s domestic battle intensifies, the disagreement is also reverberating internationally. European institutions and political figures have offered sharply contrasting assessments of the country’s constitutional crisis.

The European Commission has largely backed the Polish parliament’s authority to appoint judges. European Commissioner Michael McGrath said selecting new judges lies within the powers of Poland’s parliament.

French opposition leader Marine Le Pen, meanwhile, accused Brussels of applying a double standard. “One cannot claim to defend democracy and the rule of law while remaining silent when the constitutional balance of a member state is gravely threatened,” she posted on X. “The proliferation of such strong-arm tactics within the European Union itself is beginning to raise serious questions.” 

“America is on Poland’s side,” U.S. Ambassador to Poland Tom Rose posted to X, urging restraint. “Our concern is for the stability, security, and democratic future of a country we are proud to call our friend and ally… Poland has come too far and accomplished too much to let political differences, no matter how strongly felt, put any of that at risk.”

For Rodan-Benzaquen, the larger issue extends far beyond the events of Friday night. “One side claims to be defending constitutional order against the abuses of the other, while the institutions that should arbitrate the dispute have themselves become the object of the dispute,” she said.

With parliamentary elections in Poland only a year away, the battle over who gets to define the rule of law may prove more consequential than the confrontation that unfolded this weekend.

Calling Tusk’s tactics “straight out of the Putin playbook,” Gardner warns Poland is in “an incredibly dangerous situation right now, and the blame is squarely at the door of Donald Tusk and his government.”