Riot police have been deployed outside Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal as a dispute over who should serve on the court escalates into a confrontation between Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government and the nationalist opposition. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Warsaw building on Friday night after judges elected by the current parliamentary majority announced the suspension of the tribunal’s president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and his deputy, Bartlomiej Sochanski. The move drew condemnation from the far-right opposition Law and Justice party, known as PiS, and prompted President Karol Nawrocki, a PiS ally, to abandon a trip to Senegal, turning his plane around to return to Poland on Friday.
Police said three people were arrested after trying to enter the court complex. Tusk says decisive action is necessary to restore the rule of law after years of political interference in the Constitutional Tribunal under PiS. The Constitutional Tribunal decides whether laws comply with Poland’s constitution.
Its rulings can prevent legislation from taking effect, making its independence and who sits on its bench politically significant. This latest dispute can be traced back to 2015, during the transfer of power from a centrist government led by Tusk’s Civic Platform party to the far-right PiS. The outgoing parliament elected five judges, although Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal subsequently found that only three of those appointments had a valid legal basis.
The incoming PiS majority then elected replacements, including for the three seats already lawfully filled. Then-President Andrzej Duda refused to swear in the three validly elected judges. During its eight years in government, PiS introduced broader judicial changes that critics said brought the courts under greater political influence.
PiS is currently the main opposition in Poland. It also wanted control of a Constitutional Tribunal that would support its claim of sovereignty over the EU.” Aleksandra Kustra-Rogatka, an associate professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, told Al Jazeera that “after Przylebska became president of the CC, the rule of law crisis worsened. Controversial laws reformed the judicial system, and the court became seen as a rubber-stamp body and an active political player supporting illiberal policies.” The European Court of Human Rights, which is separate from the EU, had already ruled in 2021 that an improperly appointed judge’s participation deprived a company of its right to a tribunal established by law.
Then, in December 2025, the EU’s highest court ruled that the tribunal had not met the requirements of an independent court. It also found that tribunal judgements challenging the authority of EU law breached Poland’s obligations as a member state. Tusk returned to office as prime minister in December 2023 promising to restore judicial independence, and his government has refused to recognise the tribunal’s legitimacy in its existing form and has been attempting to disregard its rulings.
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