EXPLAINER - Police deployed after head of top court suspended, president cuts trip short: What's happening in Poland?

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Polish President Karol Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal on Friday to return to Warsaw as riot police were deployed to the top court and its president was suspended amid an escalating constitutional crisis.

The crisis surrounding Poland's top court, the Constitutional Tribunal, escalated after the government suspended its two senior justices and moved to bring criminal charges against them.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government and Nawrocki have been locked in a dispute over the tribunal's composition.

Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska issued orders suspending Tribunal President Bogdan Swieczkowski and Vice President Bartlomiej Sochanski from their duties.

Korwin-Piotrowska accused the leadership of obstructing the work of judges elected by the parliamentary majority, violating judicial procedures and preventing the proper functioning of the tribunal.

But the tribunal rejected the orders, saying on its website that Swieczkowski "remains the president of the Constitutional Tribunal and Sochanski remains the vice president."

It wrote on US social media company X: "All persons participating in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d'état."

Following the announcement, protesters gathered outside the tribunal building as tensions escalated, with some reportedly climbing over the fence and throwing objects at police.

- Reactions

Following the developments, Nawrocki said he was cutting short his trip to Senegal and returning to Poland.

"At such a moment, the President must be in Poland," he wrote on X.

Tusk said: "Restoring the rule of law is our duty."

"After years of PiS (party)-led lawlessness, this is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and it requires decisive action. There is no other way," he added.

Meanwhile, Polish Ambassador to China Jakub Kumoch resigned following the developments.

"In light of the events in the country, I have concluded that it is no longer possible for me to continue serving as the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland. As of today, I have submitted my resignation and a request for recall," he wrote on X.

Police said they had not entered the court building and denied claims that officers had stormed it.

Law and Justice (PiS) party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski and other opposition politicians arrived outside the court and accused the government of trying to seize control of the institution.

Kaczynski described the events as a "coup against the Constitutional Tribunal" and urged Nawrocki to intervene.

Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, in the US city of Atlanta for a G20 meeting, said measures concerning the Constitutional Tribunal aimed to restore the court's functioning after "politicization under the previous government."

- Long-running legal dispute

The crisis began after the PiS-led government took office in 2015, as the PiS majority in parliament quickly moved to appoint judges to the court to gain a majority, since the court can decide the legality of legislation.

The European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the PiS majority had improperly elected three judges because they duplicated positions that the previous parliament had validly filled.

The European courts ruled that Poland's Constitutional Tribunal was no longer an "independent and impartial tribunal."

Tusk's government has used the rulings as a basis to stop publishing the tribunal's rulings.

When he took office in 2023, Tusk vowed to depoliticize the judiciary, but he partially failed because Nawrocki and his predecessor, Andrzej Duda, used their presidential vetoes to block the attempts.

PiS and Nawrocki accused the government of using the rule-of-law campaign to remove political opponents from key state institutions.

Nawrocki was expected in Warsaw late Friday evening as the standoff continued and was set to meet the first president of the Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapinski.