Polish President Karol Nawrocki was seen on video confronting the Donald Tusk-backed ‘head of court’ Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, amid a deepening crisis in the European nation.
Videos shared by Russian state-backed media RT showed Nawrocki ‘forcing his way’ into Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal amid the showdown in the nation.
After Korwin-Piotrowska assumed charge, Nawrocki, who was headed to Senegal said on X that he needed to be in Poland, and turned his plane around. A later video showed his confrontation with Korwin-Piotrowska, where he reportedly said, “You are not the judges of the Constitutional Court.” The situation came to a head on Friday after the Constitutional Tribunal said that its longest-serving judge, Korwin-Piotrowska, had suspended Bogdan Swieczkowski, the tribunal’s president who was appointed by Tusk’s far-right predecessor.
Polish riot police deployed as protesters take to streets
Police have surrounded the constitutional court after the chief justice’s suspension led to a confrontation between the centrist government and the nationalist right, as per AFP. Cops were deployed to guard the court entrance as the opposition right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) protested Swieczkowski’s ouster. The latest twist comes after a long-running political dispute over the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland. The institution has been effectively paralysed, Reuters noted, with the pro-European government and the nationalist president refusing to recognise candidates put forth by the other side.
The court’s official account on X said there had been a ‘coup d’etat’ and some demonstrators could be heard chanting “Tusk traitor”. Cops said that three people had been arrested as well as some tried to make their way into the court premises. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, the attorney general, told journalists he requested that legal immunity of Swieczkowski and his deputy Bartlomiej Sochanski be lifted.
