Poland plunges into crisis over fight for control of constitutional tribunal

Police stand guard outside the premises of Poland's Constitutional Tribunal after the tribunal said on its website that the tribunal's president Bogdan Swieczkowski, who was a deputy justice minister under the Law and Justice (PiS) government, had been suspended. November 2, 2026 | Photo Credit: Reuters Shortly after 6 p.m. on Friday (October 30, 2026), Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal announced that the Tribunal’s president, Bogdan Święczkowski and vice-president, Bartłomiej Sochański, had been suspended for a month. The order was signed by judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, one of five Sejm(lower house of the Parliament)-elected judges whose oaths President Karol Nawrocki has refused to accept. Police cordoned off the Tribunal building as a mass of protesters tried to force their way through, and Mr. Nawrocki turned his Senegal-bound plane back to Warsaw. Just before 1 a.m., he walked into the Tribunal and addressed the present members of the judicial body, “You are not Constitutional Tribunal judges”. A decade-long legal dispute had moved into the building itself.The Tribunal has 15 judges, each elected by the Sejm for nine years. It can strike down laws and review bills the President sends for referral to it before his decision to sign or veto. Published - November 03, 2026 10:23 pm IST