Nawrocki accuses Tusk of unlawful TK takeover as National Security Council meets

Nawrocki's accusations

On Tuesday, 3 November, President Karol Nawrocki convened a National Security Council (RBN) session at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, which began at 15:00. The meeting was meant to cover Poland's security and the planned permanent base for American troops in the country. Nawrocki told the council that the government's actions on Friday, 30 October, had brought it together in a serious constitutional crisis of a kind without precedent since 1989. He said the government had made a political decision to take over the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) unlawfully while he was abroad, which led him to cut short a foreign trip and return to Warsaw. He also held Prime Minister Donald Tusk personally responsible for the suspension of judges and other unlawful orders in the TK case, and said Tusk's policies were damaging Poland's image abroad and deterring investors. Turning to Tusk directly, the president said:

“The prime minister already knows that he has made a mistake.”

Tusk's response after the session

Tusk spoke at a press conference after the session, which he said lasted almost five hours. He said he had wanted the meeting to help ease emotions over the internal situation around the TK and over cooperation between the state's key institutions on security. Tusk acknowledged that many unpleasant words had been directed at him in the open part of the meeting, and said that all participants had worked to defuse misunderstandings. He said:

“We all put a great deal of effort into making the Council meeting help defuse certain misunderstandings or emotions.”

On the American base, Tusk said the main centers were cooperating to bring the project to a successful conclusion. He also said the session covered secret matters, which he could not discuss. Earlier on Tuesday, at a Council of Ministers sitting, Tusk had said the president was responsible for the escalation and reported worrying movements near the border with Russia.

Security agenda and the new strategy

BBN head Bartosz Grodecki said the council had allowed participants to align their knowledge on the general security situation and on the American base. The meeting also covered a new National Security Strategy, drafted by the BBN with the Ministry of National Defence, which Nawrocki had said was ready and which he urged the government to adopt quickly. Grodecki said the presidential side expected the government to adopt the strategy without changes. The last National Security Strategy was adopted in 2020, before Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine. Rafał Bochenek, the PiS spokesman, wrote that the discussion had at times been very hot, while noting that the main political forces had agreed that permanent American bases should be located in Poland.

The Constitutional Tribunal on the same day

Tuesday also saw parallel moves around the TK. First President of the Supreme Court Zbigniew Kapiński had called an extraordinary General Assembly of the Supreme Court in defence of the TK's existing leadership, but 28 judges did not answer the summons. A General Assembly of TK judges, convened by Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, unanimously adopted the institution's budget for 2027. The quorum question, which had been unclear, was settled at the very start of that meeting. Judges were also drawn by lot to hear the case concerning the suspension of Bogdan Święczkowski.

Closed session and reactions

After the council, presidential minister Marcin Przydacz and Bartosz Grodecki held a press conference. Asked whether the TK was discussed in the closed part of the session, Przydacz said:

“The president and most politically unbiased lawyers clearly consider what happened at the TK a farce. There is no general assembly, there is no quorum.”

Bochenek said participants had not reached agreement on current matters, although he described the shared position on American bases as key from the point of view of security. The media left the room after the president's opening speech, and the rest of the session was held behind closed doors.