Poland plunged into a political crisis after the country’s Constitutional Tribunal chief, Bogdan Swieczkowski, was suspended, escalating a dispute between Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government and the nationalist right over control of the judiciary.
The tribunal announced on Friday that senior judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska had suspended Swieczkowski and taken charge of the court. The move triggered protests in Warsaw, with opposition supporters accusing the government of staging a “coup.”
President Karol Nawrocki, an ally of the opposition Law and Justice party (PiS), cut short his official visit to Senegal and returned to Poland amid the escalating standoff.
Tusk defended the move, saying restoring the rule of law after years of PiS-led governance was his government’s duty. His administration has been seeking judicial reforms, arguing that judges appointed under the previous government compromised the tribunal’s independence.
The crisis has deepened divisions over judicial appointments and the constitutional court’s legitimacy, with both sides claiming to defend Poland’s democratic institutions.
