Tusk defends police response as Polish court dispute sparks fresh protests

In a televised address on Saturday, Tusk defended the police response to Friday’s confrontation outside the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw. He said his government would provide the court with the security and conditions it needed to work.

The prime minister said, in a translation of his speech: “For years, there have been organisations and politicians in Poland who want to destroy democracy and the rule of law.” He did not name a party in that sentence, although elsewhere he criticised politicians and activists from the opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) and Confederation.

The protest followed an announcement on the tribunal’s website that its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, had been suspended. The authority of the move is disputed. The opposition has accused Tusk’s government of attempting a coup; the government says it is trying to restore judicial independence.

Police said they detained three protesters on Friday night after some threw objects at officers and tried to break through a security fence. Hundreds gathered outside the court again on Saturday, according to the Associated Press.

The confrontation is the latest stage in a long-running dispute over the tribunal’s leadership and composition. Parliament elected new judges, but President Karol Nawrocki did not formally receive their oaths and Święczkowski did not allow them to take up their duties.

PiS governed Poland from 2015 to 2023. The EU’s top court has said the tribunal was no longer impartial following appointments made under PiS, while Tusk’s attempts to reform the judiciary have faced opposition from the president and his allies.