Tensions high in Poland as Donald Tusk accused of ‘constitutional coup’

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has stood firm over his dramatic overhaul of the country’s constitutional court and denounced his opponents as hypocrites for calling it a coup.

A day earlier a senior judge at the constitutional court served suspension orders on court president Bogdan Swieczkowski and his deputy, both of whom were appointees of the national conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. For more than a decade EU institutions have viewed their appointments as irregular and subsequent court rulings as illegal.

Swieczkowski, a former PiS minister, described his forced removal as a coup d’état, triggering violent protests on Friday evening as PiS supporters clashed with riot police and broke into the court building. PiS-allied president Karol Nawrocki interrupted a state visit to Senegal to return to Warsaw, entering the court early on Saturday morning.

Tusk hit back in a robust state address, accusing PiS and the head of state of falsifying facts and undermining the rule of law.

“In a democratic state, no politician can enter a court to issue orders or intimidate judges – not even the president,” Tusk said. “We Poles have succeeded too well in building a strong state to surrender now.”

Tusk pointed out how PiS reforms of the tribunal had put the country at war with Brussels, freezing billions in funding because EU institutions did not view the constitutional tribunal as “a genuine court”. EU institutions released frozen funds when Tusk returned to power in Poland in 2023, but his promise to reform the court has been blocked by two successive PiS-allied presidents.

The latest round in this long-running drama began when Nawrocki refused to accept constitutional court judges appointed by parliament, the standard procedure, while Swieczkowski declined to allow the new judges enter the court. In doing so, the constitutional court president ignored an emergency injunction by the European Court of Justice, insisting the new judges must be allowed start work.

Now Swieczkowski and his deputy are likely to face legal proceedings after Poland’s justice minister applied to have their legal immunity lifted. With one year left to the next scheduled general election, Tusk allies say he has shrugged off legal concerns to adopt a more robust approach to judicial reform.

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Speaking outside the court, PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski accused the prime minister of destroying post-1989 Polish democracy and urged supporters to “topple Tusk”. In response, Tusk likened the PiS-lead protest over the suspensions to “a thief snatching an elderly woman’s handbag, running off, and when he is caught, screams that he’s been subjected to violence”.

Tusk said it was “no coincidence” the PiS campaign had found “support among pro-Russian forces globally”, a nod to Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev expressing support for the PiS camp and accusing Tusk of a “constitutional coup”.

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Leading Polish NGOs are ambivalent over the suspensions, and even foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski conceded Friday’s events were “not elegant”. He warned that “the alternative was to yield to an unconstitutional transformation of Poland into a presidential republic”.

Former president Lech Walesa, ex-leader of the movement that toppled communism in Poland, agreed, saying on X: “We have no other choice.”

Since taking office last year Nawrocki has worked to expand the largely symbolic role of president to take a more active role in day-to-day politics, in particular working to unite right-of-centre parties with more extremist groupings. But Nawrocki, a former boxer, remains a controversial figure: a video posted by a constitutional court judge showed him appearing to push judges aside as he entered the court complex early on Saturday morning.