Riot police surrounded Poland’s constitutional court Friday as a disputed move to suspend its chief sparked protests and accusations of a coup, prompting the country’s conservative president to turn his plane around mid-flight.
Police said demonstrators threw objects at officers and three people were arrested after trying to enter the court complex. Supporters of tribunal president Bogdan Swieczkowski also cut through the perimeter with a power tool, while officers blocked him from entering, Notes from Poland reported.
🚨🇵🇱 COUP D’ÉTAT IN POLAND?!
Police are BLOCKING Constitutional Tribunal President Bogdan Święczkowski from entering his own court!
He and a group of MPs have CUT THROUGH THE CHAINS to get inside. President Nawrocki is rushing back to Warsaw! https://t.co/I0O5G431PA
— Global Dissident (@GlobalDiss) October 30, 2026
Other protesters held rosaries and prayed, while some chanted “Tusk traitor” against Prime Minister Donald Tusk, AFP reported.
President Karol Nawrocki was flying to Senegal when the confrontation erupted at the Constitutional Tribunal, which reviews whether laws comply with Poland’s constitution.
“At such a moment, the President must be in Poland,” Nawrocki wrote on X, announcing his return, according to a translation.
The fight pits Tusk’s government, which wants closer ties with the European Union, against conservatives who say its efforts to remake the judiciary amount to an unlawful takeover. Tusk says he is repairing institutions politicized by the previous Law and Justice government, according to The Associated Press.
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Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, a government-backed judicial appointee whom Nawrocki has refused to swear in, said she had suspended Swieczkowski. She accused him of blocking newly selected judges from taking their seats and overseeing irregularities in assigning cases, Notes from Poland reported.
The tribunal’s official X account rejected her authority, insisted Swieczkowski remained in charge, and called the operation a “coup d’état.”
Police said officers were securing the court grounds and had not entered the building, according to Polish Radio, and that they had deployed at the request of Korwin-Piotrowska and Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, citing potential threats to judges and staff.
🚨🇵🇱Polish patriots take to the streets of Warsaw to defend their country from the EU and Donald Tusk!
Tusk has seized the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw, carrying out a blatant coup d’état!
President Karol Nawrocki has just landed in Warsaw to stop the chaos! https://t.co/cZ7jkV7nzZ
— Mario ZNA (@MarioBojic) October 30, 2026
The legal objections extend beyond the conservative opposition. Constitutional law scholar Marcin Matczak, a critic of the previous government’s judicial changes, disputed the legal basis for suspending Swieczkowski.
Tusk defended the action Friday, saying restoring the rule of law required decisive steps after years of abuses under Law and Justice. Zurek also sought to lift the immunity from prosecution of Swieczkowski and his deputy, AFP reported.
The standoff follows Nawrocki’s refusal to administer oaths to several judges selected by parliament. Those appointees held their own ceremonies and submitted their oaths to his office. Swieczkowski refused to admit them to the court, setting up Friday’s confrontation, according to Notes from Poland.
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