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Podcast long-distance connection: Who will win the fight for Poland's justice system?
The fight for Poland's justice system is escalating. Also there: a former amateur boxer, an accused judge and our correspondent Gabriele Lesser on the sidelines. Who wins? more...
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On Friday evening the waves hit Warsaw. Right-wing and right-wing nationalists demonstrated in front of the Constitutional Court with Polish flags, some tried to break down the gate to the court. Poland's President Karol Nawrocki arrived in the middle of the night and pushed his way into the building through the crowd. The president, a former amateur boxer, also pushed a judge down. The political fight over the Constitutional Court has escalated completely, including physically.
The center-left coalition under Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which has been in power since 2023, has been trying to restore the democratic constitutional state for three years. This also includes the Constitutional Court, which was hijacked by the PiS. 15 judges loyal to PiS no longer examined laws primarily for their constitutionality, but rather for their compatibility with the party's interests.
In 2025, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights therefore refused to allow the Polish Constitutional Court to meet the requirements of an independent and impartial court within the meaning of EU law.
Most Poles have never had anything to do with the Constitutional Court and do not understand what the current escalation is all about. Is this a “coup,” as the PiS repeatedly claims? Or is it about “restoring the rule of law in Poland,” as Prime Minister Tusk emphasizes?
The outcome of this national crisis is by no means clear. It is also a battle for the sovereignty of interpretation. If the PiS prevails with its narrative, the current center-left coalition under Donald Tusk will almost certainly lose next year's parliamentary elections.
So what exactly is going on, who is fighting against whom - and does Poland's democracy have a chance? This is what remote connection taz foreign editor Judith Poppe talks about in this episode with our correspondent for Poland, Gabriele Lesser.
The episode was recorded on November 4, 2026 at 10:30 CET.