After two days of national mourning over a deadly shooting spree, Poland on Tuesday plunges back into a fierce decade-old battle over its top court and who actually rules the country.
The crisis escalated last month. Eight judges backed by Tusk’s coalition plan to meet to approve the tribunal’s budget and consider disciplinary proceedings against its president and his deputy. Since his 2023 return to power, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has tried in vain to reform Poland’s constitutional court, which the previous nationalist PiS government had brought under its control.
At the end of 2025, the European Union’s top court said the Polish tribunal did not meet the standards of an independent and impartial court due to contested appointments.
Tusk’s government maintains it is trying to correct “political” nominations and reforms made by PiS — saying they ran counter to European democratic standards. Riot police moved in to block access to the court and a judge appointed by the parliamentary majority said she was taking over in the interim — effectively suspending the incumbent, who is close to nationalist president Karol Nawrocki. Some commentators have said that the Krakow shooting will inflame emotions over the constitutional court.
But the right-wing opposition accuses the liberal, pro-EU administration of undermining constitutional order.
