Judges at Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal are meeting to decide its future after the court president was suspended in a dispute with the government WARSAW, Poland -- Judges at Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal are meeting Tuesday to decide its future, following the suspension of the court president in a dispute with the government and a battle over the future of the rule of law. Protesters have gathered daily outside the court in Warsaw since the suspension of the tribunal’s top judge, Bogdan Święczkowski, who was appointed under the nationalist-conservative PiS party when it was in power 2015-2023. The pro-European government of Donald Tusk accuses Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki, who is aligned with PiS, of blocking judges elected by the parliamentary majority from taking up their posts at the tribunal.
Święczkowski has called his suspension a “coup d’etat.” On Friday, riot police encircled the building while the most senior of the newly elected judges announced Święczkowski's suspension from inside. Nawrocki, who was on a visit to Senegal, turned his plane around to return to Warsaw, joining the protesters outside the tribunal. The current crisis around the Constitutional Tribunal is the latest round in a long-term battle between the pro-European government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the main opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), which seeks to return to power in elections next year.
Critics in Poland and the European Union accuse PiS, which led the country between 2015 and 2023, of imposing political control over key judicial institutions, including the Constitutional Tribunal. The European Union fined Poland for undermining the rule of law. Tusk’s government came to power in 2023 promising to restore the independence of the judiciary, but its efforts have been blocked by two successive PiS-aligned presidents, including Nawrocki.
After repeated failed attempts to wrest control of the tribunal from PiS, the government decided to take a less orthodox path, one that Tusk himself said might not be to everyone’s liking. Judges on the Constitutional Tribunal are elected by Parliament and sworn in by the president. In mid-October, parliament elected another judge, meaning judges not friendly to PiS would have a majority, but Nawrocki refused to swear in the new appointment.
The judges elected this year took an oath anyway during a ceremony in parliament, a move recognized by the government camp but rejected by PiS. On Friday, the new appointees entered the tribunal premises while riot police guarded the building. One of the new judges, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, published the notice of suspension for Święczkowski, the tribunal president, on the court's website.
She argued that she had the authority to do so because she is the most senior judge on the court and that he had allegedly committed irregularities while in office. Many legal experts, as well as the European Commission and the EU's top court, agree that reforms to the justice system introduced by PiS while in power were highly problematic. In 2023 the EU Court of Justice ruled that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal was no longer an impartial court after PiS appointments.
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