Poland's court row escalates: police at Constitutional Court, two ambassadors resign

Suspension and the scene outside the court

The Constitutional Court announced on 30 October that its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, had been temporarily suspended from their duties. Parliament had earlier voted Anna Korwin-Piotrowska in as president of the court, but Nawrocki has refused to swear her in. She took over as acting head, and she had earlier warned of possible threats to the lives and health of judges and court staff. Police moved into the area around the building after that warning, though not inside it. That evening hundreds of protesters gathered outside, and police cordoned off the building as some in the crowd tried to force entry. Police said three people were detained after some protesters jumped the fence and others threw objects at officers.

Nawrocki's return and clashing accounts

Nawrocki was on his way to Senegal when he learned of the suspension, and he turned back and went straight to the court. On X he wrote that a president must be in Poland at a moment like this and that he was interrupting his trip. He left the building around 5 am on 31 October. A video posted by Maciej Berek, a judge whom Nawrocki does not recognise, shows the president pushing his way through people at the entrance, and Berek said Nawrocki had physically attacked Korwin-Piotrowska and other judges. The president's spokesman, Rafał Leśkiewicz, gave a different account, saying usurpers had tried to stop the president from entering the court and had violated his inviolability. Early on 31 October Korwin-Piotrowska tried to enter the building and was stopped by police, and Nawrocki's chief of staff, Paweł Szefernaker, read out a presidential statement outside the court.

Ambassadors resign

Paweł Soloch, Poland's ambassador to Romania, announced his resignation on X on 31 October. He wrote that he no longer saw a way to continue given the attempted illegal takeover of the tribunal, and said he had informed the president and foreign minister Radosław Sikorski. Earlier on 31 October ambassador to China Jakub Kumoch had also resigned and asked to be recalled. Both diplomats had previously worked for former president Andrzej Duda. Duda, like his successor Karol Nawrocki, is close to the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023 and filled the court with judges sympathetic to it. The Tusk coalition, in power since late 2023, has said it intends to reverse PiS-era judicial reforms.

Święczkowski's account and the consultations

Tusk has argued that restoring the rule of law is the government's duty, and he has described the process as difficult and sometimes painful after what he called years of anarchy under PiS. Święczkowski rejected the move, calling it a coup, and said:

“The Constitutional Court consists of lawfully appointed judges, not usurpers who gained access through the back door in the company of government security forces.”

Nawrocki is due to receive representatives of the governing coalition and the opposition on 31 October, in an attempt to find a way out of the institutional crisis. His statement, read outside the court, gave the threat to Poland's internal security as the reason for the consultations:

“Given the threat to the internal security of the Republic of Poland, I today convene urgent consultations with the participation of representatives of parliamentary forces.”