While Poland’s conservative president, Karol Nawrocki, was flying to Senegal, police dispatched by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s justice minister took control of the grounds of the country’s highest constitutional court. Tusk, a pro-EU liberal and former president of the European Council, governs with a coalition that includes Poland’s left-wing parties.
Police locked out the court’s chief judge, Bogdan Święczkowski, while a judge allied with Tusk declared herself in charge. Nawrocki turned his plane around, returned to Warsaw, and denounced the operation as a forcible takeover of a constitutional body. Poland’s conservatives are calling it a coup, accusing the ruling coalition of using the justice ministry and police to seize control of the court that can strike down its laws.
Shortly after 6 p.m. on Friday, orders signed by Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska appeared on the court’s website. They suspended the chief judge and his deputy for one month and named Korwin-Piotrowska acting head of the court, on the grounds that she has the longest judicial career of any sitting judge.
Korwin-Piotrowska heads Themis, a judges’ association that challenged the previous conservative government over her removal from office. That government’s justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, removed her as vice president of the regional court in Opole in 2017. Tusk’s justice ministry appointed her president of the same court in October 2024, and his parliamentary majority elected her to the constitutional court in March 2026.
Polish law requires incoming constitutional court judges to take their oath before the president, but she took hers at a ceremony in parliament. Nawrocki has never accepted that oath, and neither he nor the court’s leadership recognizes her as a judge.
Police said they acted on letters from Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek and Korwin-Piotrowska. Żurek, who also serves as Poland’s chief prosecutor, is a former judge and was a prominent critic of the previous conservative government’s judicial reforms. After taking office in 2025, he removed 46 court presidents and vice presidents.
In January, Poland’s Supreme Court ruled that he had acted unlawfully in dismissing three judicial officials. Korwin-Piotrowska’s letter warned of possible threats to the lives and health of judges and staff. Officers in riot gear secured the grounds inside the court’s fence and prevented the chief judge from entering. Police said they did not enter the building.
