[Explainer] Polish right turns court dispute into election battleground, dragging in the EU

The Polish president stormed into the Constitutional Tribunal amid claims of a “coup d’etat” on 30 October, in a sign that Poland’s upcoming election battle is going to get ugly. Karol Nawrocki had even turned back mid-flight from a planned visit to Senegal and went into the Tribunal’s building, pushing aside a judge who had blocked the door. Together with his own guards and aides, Nawrocki stayed in the premises until the early morning hours, as a few thousand protesters camped outside. And leaving in the morning, he thanked them for having “defended the Polish constitution.” The events unfolded amid a clash between the centre-right prime minister Donald Tusk and the rightwing opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), supporting Nawrocki, over the status of judges in the country’s highest court. And the PiS party’s approach to the situation was “designed to heighten perceptions of existential political conflict and mobilise supporters,” while making Tusk look like part of an unaccountable elite, said Roch Dunin-Wąsowicz, a politics professor at University College London. Natasza Styczyńska, a scholar of European studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, also told EUobserver that the courtroom melodrama was meant to “strengthen the image” of PiS ahead of next year’s parliamentary election, which falls due by 11 November. What led to the crisis To read this story, log in or subscribeEnjoy access to all articles and 25 years of archives, comment and gift articles. Become a subscriber for as low as €1,75 per week.Read without limitsAlready a subscriber? Login