Crisis in Poland: The Constitutional Tribunal at the center of the standoff between the government and the opposition

Night at the Tribunal: how events unfolded

On Friday evening, October 31, 2026, clashes broke out between protesters and police outside the Constitutional Tribunal building in Warsaw after the court's president was removed from office. Euronews reports this. The crisis around the Tribunal has been going on for several weeks: the government is trying to remove from the court judges appointed under the previous government of the Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Change of the court's leadership

The episode began when seven people elected by the Sejm as Tribunal judges entered the building on Friday. According to the court's spokesperson Weronika Scibor, security guards were ordered to collect their belongings and leave the building, while the incumbent Tribunal President Bogdan Swiatkowski and Vice-President Bartlomiej Sochanski were reportedly not allowed inside. Scibor suggested that the timing of the operation was chosen deliberately — with the absence of part of the staff in mind. Following this, judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska announced that she was taking over the leadership of the Tribunal and removing Swiatkowski from his duties. The court's current leadership challenged the legality of these actions.

The president returns and accuses the government

Polish President Karol Nawrocki cut short his visit to Senegal and returned to Warsaw. At the presidential palace he met with the First President of the Supreme Court Zbigniew Kapinski, after which he headed to the Tribunal building together with him and a group of aides. According to footage published on X, a scuffle broke out when Nawrocki tried to enter, involving a group of judges including Korwin-Piotrowska. Early on Saturday morning, the head of the presidential chancellery Pawel Szefernaker read out a statement describing the night as a 'violation of the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland and a violent seizure of a constitutional organ of the state'; he demanded that 'the coercive forces sent there by the government' leave the Tribunal's premises. Nawrocki stated that together with Kapinski he does not recognize the actions of those who, in his view, are unlawfully usurping power in the court, and announced plans to hold emergency talks on Saturday with representatives of parliamentary political groups, calling this necessary due to a threat to the state's internal security.

Reaction of the government and the opposition

Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek expressed the opposite position: 'The president's behavior has alarmed me greatly,' he said, adding that he hopes for action by the prosecutor's office and that it is unacceptable for a person protected by presidential immunity to behave this way. According to him, the footage shows the president 'bursting inside and attacking judges.' Zurek also acknowledged that talks about the situation at the Tribunal, including with Sochanski, had taken place, but no compromise was reached, and he emphasized that the court must resume normal operations and deal with citizens' pending cases. Protests took place outside the court building with the participation of PiS and Confederation politicians: among those present were party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Mateusz Morawiecki, former Tribunal President Julia Przylebska, and Bogdan Swiatkowski. Kaczynski called what happened an attack on the Constitutional Tribunal, urged the protests to continue, and warned that Poland risks turning into a police state. PiS Member of the European Parliament Patryk Jaki noted that footage from the Tribunal had already spread around the world and could damage the image of Donald Tusk's government.

What is known and what remains unclear

Thus, the sides give directly opposite assessments of the same events: the presidential side calls them a violent seizure of a constitutional organ, while the justice minister calls them unacceptable behavior by the president himself. It remains unclear how the dispute over the legitimacy of the Tribunal's leadership will be resolved, whether the announced emergency talks will take place, and what legal consequences the situation will entail; the sources contain no information about decisions by the court or the prosecutor's office at this point.