Poland | Poland in crisis mode

The situation at the Warsaw Constitutional Court remains tense even the day after the attempted storming. Photo: AFP/Mladen Antonov Almost a year before the parliamentary elections in October 2027, the confrontational situation between the government camp under Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the right-wing opposition camp, including President Karol Nawrocki, has come to a head. For months, the president has refused to appoint five constitutional judges elected by parliament, thereby, in the government's opinion, blocking the work of the constitutional court in order to keep it firmly in the national-conservative channel. The elected constitutional judges were finally sworn in in the Sejm, but Bogdan Święczkowski, chairman of the 15-member body since 2024, refused to recognize them.

On October 30, 2026, Święczkowski was declared deposed by newly elected constitutional judges; the removal from office was expressly welcomed by Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek. The minister spoke of a necessary step to restore the committee's ability to work. President Nawrocki immediately returned to Senegal from a planned trip abroad, spoke of a coup and went to the Constitutional Court, but without seeking an interview there. The president categorically stated that the judges gathered in the courthouse during these hours were not constitutional judges! He then stated that he now wanted to talk to the parliamentary parties.

The right-wing opposition parties are united behind the president, Jarosław Kacyzński appeared very decisively, not talking about a coup, but about an attack on the Constitutional Court. In these times, the Constitutional Court, along with the National Bank, is one of the crucial bastions for defending Poland's national sovereignty. According to Kacyzński, the president must now use every opportunity to put a stop to the destructive work of the Tusk government.

According to current surveys, the government camp and the right-wing opposition camp have the same approval ratings; the decisive factor next autumn will be the ability to mobilize better than the opposing side. On the right, questions of national identity and national sovereignty are likely to play a prominent role; many things are already being pushed together in a way that is critical of the EU. Kacyzński himself recently openly threatened to leave the EU. Tusk responded that the voters now know what will be about in autumn 2027.

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