Riot police were deployed outside Poland’s Constitutional Court on Friday as a confrontation between Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government and senior judges intensified, drawing President Karol Nawrocki into the dispute.
The standoff follows Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek’s announcement that he had requested the removal of legal immunity from Constitutional Court President Bogdan Święczkowski and Vice-President Bartłomiej Sochański to allow criminal proceedings against them.
The dispute reflects longstanding tensions between Tusk’s government and the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, which previously governed Poland and remains closely associated with senior figures in the judiciary.
Tusk, who has pledged to depoliticise the country’s judicial institutions, defended the government’s actions on Friday as PiS supporters gathered outside the Constitutional Court building in Warsaw to protest.
Police equipped for riot control were stationed around the premises to prevent demonstrators from entering the building.
Meanwhile, President Karol Nawrocki, who enjoys the backing of PiS, interrupted an international trip to respond to the developing confrontation.
According to his chief of staff, Nawrocki cancelled his journey to Senegal while already airborne and returned to Warsaw, where he subsequently entered the Constitutional Court.
The president had been travelling to attend the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Dakar.
Święczkowski also appeared before reporters near the court building as tensions continued.
The confrontation marks a further escalation in Poland’s dispute over judicial independence, political influence and the authority of the country’s constitutional institutions.
The proposed removal of immunity could open the way for criminal charges against the court’s two most senior judges, although the outcome of the proceedings remains uncertain.