Polish president turns back Senegal flight amid court leadership dispute

Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki turned his plane around during a flight to Senegal on 30 October and returned to Warsaw, citing events at the Constitutional Tribunal.

The court’s website had announced the suspension of its president, Bogdan Święczkowski. Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska said she had ordered a one-month suspension of his official duties, according to Polish Radio. The tribunal’s account on X, however, said Święczkowski remained its president.

Nawrocki said the president needed to be in Poland at such a moment. After returning, he met Zbigniew Kapiński, the head of Poland’s separate Supreme Court, his office said.

Police entered the Constitutional Tribunal’s grounds in Warsaw amid protests. Spokesperson Andrzej Fijołek told Polish news outlet Onet that officers were outside and not in the building, contrary to a report by Dutch news site Nieuws.nl. He said police increased their presence after chairs and bottles were thrown at officers and three people climbed over the fence. The three were detained.

The tribunal has been at the centre of a long-running dispute over Poland’s judiciary. Critics in Poland and the EU accuse the Law and Justice party, known as PiS, of placing judicial institutions under political control when it governed between 2015 and 2023. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government says it is working to restore judicial independence; PiS politicians have condemned the suspension.

On 31 October, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the tribunal for a second night. Nawrocki held talks with representatives of several parliamentary parties, although Tusk did not attend.