Rival claims to lead Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal draw police to Warsaw court

Police were deployed outside Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw on Friday, 30 October, as rival claims to its leadership turned a long-running judicial dispute into a confrontation at the court. An announcement on the tribunal’s website said its president and deputy were being relieved of their duties for a month, but an account posted on the court’s X account insisted they remained in office.

According to Radio ZET, orders issued by Anna Korwin-Piotrowska called for an immediate one-month break in the duties of tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski and vice-president Bartłomiej Sochański. Korwin-Piotrowska is among the judges elected by parliament whom President Karol Nawrocki has not personally sworn in. The X account said the tribunal’s website had been unlawfully taken over and disputed her status as a judge. The authority behind the conflicting announcements, and the legal effect of the orders, remain contested.

Justice Minister and prosecutor general Waldemar Żurek separately said he had submitted five requests to lift judicial immunity: four concerning Święczkowski and one concerning Sochański. He said the requests ran to 224 pages, accompanied by 50 volumes of case files. Submitting them does not itself remove either man’s immunity. Żurek said one line of suspicion concerned preventing parliament-elected judges from working at the tribunal. Prosecutors announced an investigation into the exclusion of four judges in April; that inquiry did not establish wrongdoing by the two court leaders.

Supporters of the opposition Law and Justice party protested outside the building. Police said their operations were confined to the area outside it, and that three people were detained after protesters crossed a fence. Nawrocki said he had turned back a flight to Senegal because of the situation. Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended the action as part of his government’s effort to restore the rule of law.

The dispute over who may sit on the tribunal has persisted since Law and Justice governed Poland from 2015 to 2023. In a 2025 judgment, the EU’s Court of Justice found that irregularities in the appointment of three tribunal members and its president meant the court did not meet the requirements of an independent and impartial tribunal established by law.

Earlier this month, the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission advised that Nawrocki should receive the oaths of judges elected by parliament without delay. It said an oath could, under specified conditions, be completed without his physical presence if he refused or delayed. That advice concerns the judges’ oaths, not the legality of Friday’s orders against the tribunal’s leadership. Legal scholar Marcin Matczak, himself a critic of Święczkowski, questioned the legal basis being invoked for the immediate interruption of his duties.