Poland's constitutional crisis deepens as police ring the Tribunal

President Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal and called the seizure of the court a break with constitutional order. Prime Minister Tusk said in a national address that no politician, not even the president, may enter a court or pressure judges.

Police in large numbers surrounded the Constitutional Tribunal on al. Szucha on 30 October 2026. The move came in response to a letter by judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska. She had suspended Tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski and deputy president Bartłomiej Sochański from their duties. She put them on one month's forced leave. That night, President Nawrocki said the constitutional order of Poland was violated and a constitutional organ of the state was seized by force.

Nawrocki cut short his trip to Senegal, turning his plane back near Spain. The plane landed in Warsaw shortly before 10 pm on the evening of 30 October 2026. On 31 October he said he had enabled the legally serving deputy president, Bartłomiej Sochański, to enter the Tribunal building. Nawrocki gave that account himself, the day after his plane flew back to Warsaw.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk answered in a televised speech to the nation on Saturday evening. In certain matters there can be no compromise, he said, and lawlessness cannot be negotiated away. No politician, not even the president, has the right to enter a court, give judges instructions or intimidate them, Tusk said.

Inside the Tribunal, judge Bogdan Święczkowski barred the new judges elected by the Sejm from taking their seats or hearing cases. President Nawrocki never received their oaths and calls their election null and void. Prime Minister Tusk's push to settle the standoff met stiff resistance from PiS and the president. During the police cordon on Aleja Szucha, people threw dangerous objects at officers, police said. Sejm speaker Szymon Hołownia met Nawrocki on Saturday to look for a way out of the crisis.

Hołownia said after the meeting that the two sides discussed different scenarios for de-escalating the crisis and finding a way out. He said he sees a willingness to talk on the president's side. The Sejm speaker hopes the same readiness to seek agreement appears on his own camp's side. He warned the crisis harms Poland's image abroad and may involve the risk of reduced foreign investment.