Polish President Karol Nawrocki cut short his journey to Senegal and returned home after police entered the country’s Constitutional Tribunal and its president was suspended.
“At such a moment, the President must be in Poland,” Nawrocki posted on X. “I’m interrupting my flight to Senegal. I’m returning.”
Police said they secured the tribunal after dozens of protesters gathered outside to oppose what they described as the unlawful suspension of its president by Poland’s current pro-European government.
Authorities also said protesters threw dangerous objects at officers stationed outside the building.
Protesters gather outside the headquarters of Poland’s Constitutional Court in Warsaw after police blocked access to the court building on Oct. 30, 2026 (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images)
Some demonstrators prayed outside the court, while others displayed signs saying, “Tusk — a symbol of anti-Polish sentiment,” “Down with the commies and Tusk’s regime,” and “Stop destroying the state.”
Poland’s leading judicial institutions, including the Constitutional Tribunal, have become a central point of conflict between Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European government and the main opposition force, the national-conservative Law and Justice party, or PiS, which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023.
Critics have accused PiS of exerting political influence over key judicial bodies. Some of the party’s reforms prompted the European Union to impose financial penalties on Poland.
Nawrocki, who is allied with PiS, declined to swear in three of the six judges nominated by parliament earlier this year.
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Constitutional Tribunal President Bogdan Święczkowski, appointed by the PiS government after serving as a deputy justice minister, had refused to let judges chosen by the current parliamentary majority take up their posts. The tribunal’s website said Święczkowski was suspended on Friday.
Protesters rally outside Poland’s top court as tensions between President Karol Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government intensify. (AP)
“Restoring the rule of law is our duty,” said Tusk, who returned to power in 2023 with a promise to restore the judiciary’s independence. He posted to X, “After years of PiS-led lawlessness, this is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and it requires decisive action. There is no other way.”
Since Tusk’s government came to power, its pro-European agenda has faced vetoes from two successive presidents aligned with PiS, including Nawrocki.
Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, a former PiS member whose Rozwój Plus coalition is presenting itself as an alternative to Tusk’s government ahead of next November’s parliamentary elections, also criticized what he called “the forceful takeover of the Constitutional Tribunal” in a post on X.
Police officers stand behind the fence with a rosary hanging on it as protesters gather outside the headquarters of Poland’s Constitutional Court in Warsaw after police blocked access to the court building on October 30, 2026 (Getty Images)
“Justice cannot be achieved through violence,” Morawiecki said, adding that “Tusk will stop at nothing to cling to power… We do not consent to Belarusian methods in Poland!”
“It’s true: a coup d’état is underway,” former PiS Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro wrote on X. “If someone were to forcibly break into the Prime Minister’s Office and take it over, we would all know what to call it… This is a blatant, criminal attack on the constitutional order… That is why I call for resistance that will be loud, firm, solidary and fearless.”