The key facts

  • Police entered the building of Poland's Constitutional Tribunal on October 30 after incidents outside the court
  • Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski said the aim of the police actions was to resume the court's work
  • President Nawrocki cut short his visit to Senegal and returned to the country

Sikorski: police acted so that the tribunal could resume work

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, speaking at a press conference on Friday on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta (USA), defended the police actions at the building of the Constitutional Tribunal, saying they were aimed at allowing 'duly elected judges' to resume the court's work. According to him, the tribunal had been 'politicized under the previous government,' and the dispute over its leadership prevented the court from functioning normally, Anadolu reports.

The essence of the conflict over the court's leadership

Sikorski explained that the majority of judges elected by the new parliament over the past two years could not perform their duties because the outgoing president of the court refused to convene the tribunal's council. As a result, he said, the court could not issue rulings, interpret laws, or even approve the budget for the next year. 'Therefore, measures had to be taken so that the tribunal could function again,' the agency quotes him as saying.

What happened in Warsaw and the president's reaction

The minister's comments came after police entered the tribunal building on Friday, and the court itself announced the suspension of its president, Bogdan Swieczkowski. The police said officers entered the premises after incidents outside the court, including dangerous objects being thrown at police officers. Against this backdrop, Polish President Karol Nawrocki announced the early termination of his trip to Senegal: 'At a moment like this, the president must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning,' he wrote on X. The publication does not report by what powers and in what procedure the tribunal's president was suspended, or how other branches of government reacted to the police actions.