Poland's President Flies Home as Constitutional Court Crisis Erupts
Written by AI from france24.com's report. Not checked by a person.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki turned his plane around mid-flight to return to Warsaw after PM Donald Tusk's government suspended the Constitutional Court's chief justice and deployed riot police around the court building.
Poland was plunged into a sharp constitutional confrontation on October 30, 2026, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government moved to suspend Bogdan Swieczkowski, president of the country's constitutional court and a judge appointed by the previous nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government. Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska announced the suspension, saying it was necessary to restore the rule of law. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who also serves as attorney general, separately requested the lifting of legal immunity for Swieczkowski and his deputy Bartlomiej Sochanski. Riot police were deployed around the court building, and three people who tried to enter the complex were arrested. Dozens of PiS supporters gathered outside to protest, with some chanting "Tusk traitor" and former PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski addressing the crowd. The court's official X account denounced the move as a "coup d'état" and insisted Swieczkowski remained in office. President Nawrocki, who had been mid-flight to Senegal on an official trip, ordered his plane back to Warsaw. Back in the capital, he held a meeting with Swieczkowski and the court's first chief justice Zbigniew Kapinski at the presidential palace. Tusk, a pro-EU figure who won the 2023 election vowing to end a long dispute with Brussels over judicial independence, defended the action on X, saying: "Restoring the rule of law is our duty."
