Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki had to push his way through crowds and police to enter the Constitutional Tribunal as Prime Minister Donald Tusk attempted to oust him causing a constitutional crisis. video/ Social Media.

Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki physically pushed through a group of judges at the entrance to the Constitutional Tribunal, the country’s top, even if dysfuntional, court at around 1am on October 31, bringing a bitter contest for control of the court nearly to a fist scuffle.

The clash exposed the complicated nature of Poland’s decade-long judicial crisis, which the Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition promised to fix as it successfully campaigned for power in 2023.

The election of Nawrocki in June 2025 thwarted the effort as the president wields veto power over Tusk’s parliamentary majority. Nawrocki ran for president for the formerly ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. Nawrocki and Tusk have been at loggerheads ever since. 

The government is trying to put judges elected by the current parliament to work at a tribunal still run by appointees associated with the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, while Nawrocki has challenged the legitimacy of several of the new judges.

As the crisis began, Nawrocki turned his plane on the way to Senegal around mid-flight to return to Warsaw and immediately forced his way into the Constitutional Tribunal with Supreme Court First President Zbigniew Kapiński to deal with the crisis. Police at the entrance to the building barred his way, but did not dare arrest the sitting president who entered the building.

Dramatic footage taken at the doorway and released on social media shows him making his way through people gathered to receive him, including Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, the judge claiming to have taken over the court’s leadership as the longest-serving judge.

Korwin-Piotrowska had earlier issued two decisions, suspending the Tribunal President Bogdan Święczkowski and his deputy Bartłomiej Sochański for one month. Both deny the legality of the move.

Presidential officials offer a different version of the scuffle at the entrance to the Tribunal, accusing Korwin-Piotrowska and other judges of physically blocking Nawrocki to prevent him from entering.

The confrontation continued inside, as Nawrocki refused to meet Korwin-Piotrowska and other judged the president considered illegitimate.

After leaving the building around 5am, Nawrocki issued a statement alleging that government-backed forces had unlawfully seized a constitutional institution. Nawrocki also demanded that police withdraw and called urgent talks with parliamentary parties for later on October 31.

The sequence began on the afternoon of October 30, when police deployed outside the court following concerns raised by Korwin-Piotrowska about the security of judges and staff. There is a pro-PiS encampment outside the court’s premises.

Korwin-Piotrowska’s suspending two of the court’s top judges rested on provisions permitting the temporary removal of judges when serious concerns over their conduct require immediate action.

The alleged misconduct included excluding parliament’s new appointees from court business, improperly choosing hearing panels and preventing the judges’ assembly from preparing the tribunal’s 2027 budget.

In what has accompanied the dispute over fixing Poland’s top court, legal specialists have disagreed over whether the provisions cited by Korwin-Piotrowska can be used against the tribunal’s leadership.

Outside, demonstrators supporting PiS gathered with opposition politicians, among them party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński and former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Święczkowski also tried to access the building.

Tusk endorsed the effort to restore what he described as the rule of law after PiS’s years in office, acknowledging that the process would be difficult and require firm action.

The ongoing struggle stems from a constitutional conflict dating to 2015, when PiS began reshaping the tribunal and filled disputed seats. Its changes provoked sustained criticism from European institutions. Tusk’s government, in office since December 2023, has refused to recognise some tribunal rulings and has sought to overhaul its composition.

Parliament elected eight tribunal judges during 2026, enough to change the balance of the 15-member court if all were allowed to serve. Nawrocki received oaths from three but not the other five, who instead made declarations at parliamentary ceremonies. Święczkowski has not allowed the five to adjudicate.

The Council of Europe’s Venice Commission said this month that, where a president blocks the oath-taking process, an alternative procedure may be legitimate if appropriate formal requirements are met.

Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek added another front on Friday by submitting five requests to remove the judicial immunity of Święczkowski and Sochański.

Korwin-Piotrowska has called a judges’ assembly for November 3, including to approve next year’s budget, but it remains unclear if she can exercise authority inside the tribunal.