Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has become the focus of a renewed political and legal confrontation. The temporary suspension of its president and vice-president triggered fresh accusations of unlawful conduct and a coup, amid a dispute over whether newly appointed judges can take up their posts.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist-liberal Civic Coalition won the 2023 parliamentary election promising to restore the rule of law after two terms of government by the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), led by Jarosław Kaczyński. Tusk’s government has not secured the legislative changes it pledged to pursue, while President Karol Nawrocki, elected in 2025, has used his power to veto or delay legislation by referring it to the Tribunal.
The court has 15 judges, elected by an absolute majority in the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, for nine-year terms. Since Tusk took office, parliament has selected eight judges to fill vacancies. Nawrocki has sworn in three and has not administered the oath to the other five. The judges took their oaths before the speaker of the Sejm instead. A 13 October opinion from the Venice Commission said the president should swear in judges elected by parliament.
The immediate dispute concerns a European Court of Human Rights interim measure issued in May requiring Polish authorities to allow the new judges to perform their duties. Justice Deputy Minister Dariusz Mazur says the Tribunal’s president and vice-president have prevented them from doing so. Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek has opened a criminal investigation into the two officials over alleged failure to fulfil their duties and on Friday sought to have their immunity lifted.
Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, the court’s longest-serving member, took over as acting president, suspended the two officials temporarily and called a general assembly for Tuesday. The legality of her decision and the procedure remains disputed. Supporters argue that the suspended officials should not decide on a matter affecting themselves; others question whether the law provides for this course of action.
The dispute spilled into the street and the court building on Friday and into Saturday morning. Both sides called police to protect the site as politicians and supporters gathered outside. Four people were arrested. Nawrocki, who had been travelling to Senegal, announced that he was turning back. Around 1 a.m., he arrived at the Tribunal and tried to force his way inside, according to the account in the source report. Żurek says the president’s actions may have been criminal. The presidency, in turn, alleges that three judges threatened the head of state’s physical integrity.
Tusk’s government says the right is putting pressure on the Tribunal and has defended the police presence. Opposition parties and their supporters accuse the government of staging a coup. The dispute has also featured in social-media posts by European far-right figures, people in the US MAGA movement and former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
The conflict has roots in 2015, when a parliament led by Civic Coalition nominated five judges shortly before losing power, although only three vacancies were available. PiS then selected five judges, even though it was entitled to fill only two seats. The president at the time, Andrzej Duda, refused to swear in the three judges who had been validly selected and instead administered the oath to PiS’s five nominees. The disputed appointments have contributed to questions about the Tribunal’s composition and the legitimacy of some of its rulings.
The Tribunal has decided politically consequential cases, including on abortion, and remains an important source of institutional power. Tusk’s government considers its composition defective and does not publish or implement its decisions in the state journal. With parliamentary elections less than a year away, the dispute has heightened stakes for both sides: the government wants the court to operate with the newly elected judges, while PiS favours maintaining the current arrangement.
Independent experts have called for a consensus-based solution, including non-partisan judges and an appointment process designed to balance political power. Mazur says the government previously proposed requiring a three-fifths parliamentary majority for appointments and barring candidates who had held senior political roles in the preceding four years. Duda referred that bill to the Tribunal, where it stalled. Right-wing parties and conservative government partners have since called for a broader reset of the court and its appointment system.
Tusk has rejected that approach. In a post on X on Monday, he said the president should recognise judges elected by the Sejm and allow them to take up their duties, arguing that this could resolve the dispute without constitutional changes.
Sources: El País Internacional.