Polish police continued to cordon off the Constitutional Tribunal building in the capital Warsaw on Sunday, as a crowd of supporters of President Karol Nawrocki gathered outside carrying Polish flags, in the latest chapter of the crisis between the president and Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Presidency: Tusk personally responsible
The Polish presidency said in a statement that “Prime Minister Donald Tusk is personally responsible for the attack on the Constitutional Tribunal.” Nawrocki described what happened as “the forcible takeover of a constitutional body,” while Tusk said his government would continue restoring the tribunal’s independence and that “there is no room for compromise” on some issues.
Roots of the crisis
The crisis erupted on October 30, when the tribunal’s senior-most judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, suspended the court’s president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy from their duties for one month, while police cordoned off the building. Nawrocki changed the course of his plane bound for Senegal to return to the tribunal and enter it amid a confrontation with judges at the entrance. The Constitutional Tribunal has been at the center of a political dispute in Poland since 2015.
Tusk responds to presidency
Responding to the presidency’s accusations, Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media on Monday, November 2: “President Karol Nawrocki chose a forced confrontation. A democratic state governed by the rule of law cannot submit to violence, and it will not.”