Judges suspend Poland's Constitutional Tribunal president, police block Warsaw building

Judges from Poland's parliamentary majority suspended tribunal president Bogdan Swięczkowski and his deputy for one month on Friday, and riot police blocked access to the building. President Karol Nawrocki, who says the constitutional order was violated, abandoned a foreign trip and returned to Warsaw.

Judges from Poland's parliamentary majority suspended tribunal president Bogdan Swieczkowski and his deputy, Bartlomiej Sochanski, for one month, with judge Korwin-Piotrowska saying she was taking over the running of the tribunal. Riot police blocked access to the building in Warsaw on Friday.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said decisive action is necessary to restore the rule of law after years of political interference in the tribunal under PiS. His government has refused to recognise the tribunal's legitimacy in its existing form. Far-right critics argue the measures against the suspended justices are politically motivated pressure.

President Karol Nawrocki said on Saturday that the constitutional order had been violated during the night of 31 October 2026. He charged that a constitutional organ of state had been forcibly seized. Nawrocki demanded that the government's coercion forces leave the tribunal's premises and that the legal order be restored. Nawrocki said he had held consultations with the First President of the Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapiński. In his account, Kapiński likewise does not consider the actions legal.

Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who is also prosecutor general, has taken steps against Swięczkowski and Sochański and said he hopes the prosecutor's office will act on it. He called the conduct of the tribunal's president unacceptable and scandalous, and said the prosecutor's office should act on it. Zurek said talks with judge Sochański had taken place but produced no compromise. President Karol Nawrocki abandoned his trip to Senegal, and his plane, which had reportedly turned back over Spain, landed in Warsaw shortly before 10 p.m. on Friday.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2021 that an improperly appointed judge's participation deprived a company of its right to a tribunal established by law. In December 2025 the EU's highest court found that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal did not meet the requirements of an independent court.