Polish president accuses Tusk of forced takeover of country's top court

WARSAW – Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Oct. 31 accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk of staging a forced takeover of the country's top court after the head of the court, an ally of the previous far right government, was suspended.

Late on Friday, the Constitutional Tribunal said its longest-serving judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, had suspended Bogdan Swieczkowski, the tribunal's president and an appointee of Tusk's hard-right predecessor, and was now in charge of the court.

The move escalated a battle between Nawrocki, an ally of the previous nationalist government, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-European government over control of the judiciary.

"Tonight, there was a breach of public order in the Republic of Poland and a forcible takeover of a constitutional body," Nawrocki said in a statement read by an aide outside the court early Saturday, after the president had turned back mid-flight from a trip to Africa to address the situation.

He headed straight to the court, where riot police were out in force as several hundred protesters demanded Swieczkowski's reinstatement.

Nawrocki called for urgent political consultations.

Tusk, writing on X, said his government was seeking to restore the rule of law, which the European Union had accused his predecessors – the Law and Justice Party – of subverting.