Polish President Turns Back From Senegal Flight After Top Court Chief Is Suspended

Polish President Karol Nawrocki turned back his plane on Friday while flying to Senegal and returned to Poland after the president of the Constitutional Tribunal, Bogdan Swieczkowski, was suspended. The move opened a new and open clash between the president and Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government over who controls the country's top court.

"At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning," Nawrocki said on X.

The suspension

The Constitutional Tribunal said its longest serving judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, had suspended Swieczkowski, an appointee of the former Law and Justice government, and was now in charge of the court. A notice posted on the tribunal website said Swieczkowski and the deputy president, Bartlomiej Sochanski, had been suspended from their duties for one month. Korwin-Piotrowska also called a general assembly of the court's judges for November 3.

The tribunal leadership rejected the suspensions. It said the court website had been taken over unlawfully and described the actions as an attempt at a coup. Swieczkowski does not recognise the suspension order against him.

Protest and police outside the court

Protesters gathered outside the tribunal in Warsaw late on Friday amid a heavy police presence. Reuters reported that hundreds gathered, while the Associated Press reported that dozens rallied, and the two accounts give different sizes for the crowd. Police reported detaining three people after part of the crowd forced through the court fencing and hurled objects at officers.

Warsaw police said officers entered the tribunal premises after dangerous objects were thrown at them. Police said they were on the grounds, not inside the building, and were restoring public order.

Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Zurek told reporters he had filed five requests to strip judicial immunity, four concerning Swieczkowski and one concerning Sochanski.

Tusk defended the course his government has taken. "Restoring the rule of law is our obligation," he wrote on X. "This process is difficult, at times even painful, and requires decisive action. There is no other way."

A dispute that dates to 2015

The fight is part of a long running conflict that has effectively paralysed the tribunal, with the pro-European government and the nationalist president refusing to recognise appointees put forward by the other side. The dispute dates to 2015, when the nationalist Law and Justice party sought to appoint judges to seats that critics said were already filled.

After Tusk's coalition took office in 2023, it pledged to restore the rule of law and reform the court. Nawrocki, elected president in 2025, has acted to block those efforts. Earlier this year he refused to swear in judges nominated by parliament, while Swieczkowski, a former deputy justice minister under Law and Justice, declined to seat judges elected by the current parliamentary majority.