Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Saturday (October 31, 2026) accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk of staging a forced takeover of the country’s top court after the head of the court, an ally of the previous far right government, was suspended.
Tusk’s hard-right predecessor, and was now in charge of the court. Late on Friday (October 30, 2026), the Constitutional Tribunal said its longest-serving judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska had suspended Bogdan Swieczkowski, the tribunal’s president and an appointee of Mr.
The move escalated a battle between Mr. Nawrocki, an ally of the previous nationalist government, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European government over control of the judiciary. Mr. A long-running political dispute over the Constitutional Tribunal has effectively paralysed the institution, with the pro-European government and the nationalist President refusing to recognise appointees put forward by the other side. After Mr. Nawrocki refused to swear in three of six judges nominated by parliament, while Mr. Swieczkowski, a former deputy Justice Minister in the Law and Justice administration, declined to seat judges elected by the current parliamentary majority.
Nawrocki said in a statement read by an aide outside the court early on Saturday (October 31, 2026), after the President had turned back mid-flight from a trip to Africa to address the situation. Tusk’s coalition took office in 2023 it pledged to restore the rule of law and reform the Court, but Law and Justice ally Mr. Nawrocki has acted to thwart those efforts since his election as President in 2025.
“Tonight, there was a breach of public order in the Republic of Poland and a forcible takeover of a constitutional body,” Mr. Tusk, writing on X, said his government was seeking to restore the rule of law, which the European Union had accused his predecessors — the Law and Justice Party — of subverting.
Earlier this year, Mr.
