Police deployed at Poland's Constitutional Tribunal as its president and deputy are suspended

On Friday 30 October 2026, a dispute over control of Poland's Constitutional Tribunal escalated in Warsaw. Police entered the grounds around the tribunal's headquarters, and its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, was reportedly suspended from his duties, according to media reports.

What happened

Police said officers entered the tribunal's grounds after incidents outside the building, including dangerous objects being thrown at officers. Warsaw police said they did not enter the building itself. They also denied reports that members of the tribunal's security service had been forcibly removed.

The deployment followed a notification from tribunal judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, who warned of threats to the lives and health of judges and staff, and of a risk of public disorder, as reported by the PAP news agency. According to the daily Rzeczpospolita, she was set to take over the president's duties. A demonstration was under way outside the building, with clashes and detentions.

Requests to lift immunity

Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek said he had filed requests to lift the immunity of Święczkowski and of the tribunal's deputy president, Bartłomiej Sochański. He cited their alleged obstruction of judges' work. Case files were also passed to the tribunal.

At an evening press conference, Żurek said Poland must carry out rulings that bind the state, including an interim measure from the European Court of Human Rights, and must allow judges to do their work.

The tribunal's position and criticism

The tribunal said on its website that Święczkowski remains president and Sochański remains deputy president. It described the actions against them as the crime of a coup d'état. Sochański told the media he did not know what was happening and had learned of the situation in a phone call from Korwin-Piotrowska.

Zbigniew Kapiński, First President of the Supreme Court, called the government's actions unprecedented in a democratic state governed by the rule of law. He particularly criticised the deployment of police to the tribunal's grounds and the suspension of the two judges. He added that police should not be used as a tool of political pressure on judicial institutions.

President Karol Nawrocki turned his plane around on its way to Senegal and returned to Poland.

Background

The dispute concerns who sits on the tribunal. According to reports, Nawrocki has not sworn in three of the six judges chosen by parliament. Święczkowski, for his part, has not allowed judges elected by the current parliamentary majority to take up their duties. It is part of a wider conflict over the rule of law and the judiciary between Donald Tusk's government and the opposition led by Jarosław Kaczyński, which is backed by the president. Tusk said in October that the government would use all available means to restore the legal and constitutional order.

The situation is fast-moving, and the parties offer conflicting assessments of the legality of the actions taken.