State crisis in Poland: Fierce power struggle breaks out over the Constitutional Court

afp/dpa | In Poland, the conflict between the center-left government and the right-wing conservative camp around President Karol Nawrocki over the Constitutional Court has come to a head. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the court headquarters in Warsaw in the evening, accusing Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his government of an attack on the country's constitution and judiciary. The police cordoned off the building. Because of the events, President Nawrocki canceled his trip to Senegal and went to the Constitutional Court that night for talks, where the waves continued to rise.

After the nightly escalation, Nawrocki summoned politicians from all parties represented in parliament. “Due to the threat posed to the internal security of the Republic of Poland, I am convening today urgent consultations with the participation of representatives of the forces represented in Parliament,” Nawrocki said in a statement read out by his head of cabinet Pawel Szefernaker on Saturday.

The crisis was triggered by an announcement on the Constitutional Court website. It said that the court president and his deputy had been relieved of their functions - and that a newly nominated judge would take over as acting director. But the real conflict behind it has deeper roots.

In the tussle over the Constitutional Court, the country's two major political camps are irreconcilably opposed: on the one hand, Tusk's pro-European citizens' coalition and its allies, on the other hand, the right-wing conservative opposition party PiS and President Nawrocki, who is close to it.

The PiS, which ruled the country from 2015 to 2023, has filled the court with judges who are politically close to it. The European Court of Justice ruled at the time that the Polish Constitutional Court could not be considered independent and impartial due to serious deficiencies in the appointment of its judges and the then president under the aegis of the PiS.

After taking over the reins of government in 2023, Tusk made it his goal to reverse the PiS's controversial innovations in the judiciary. But in recent months Nawrocki has refused to swear in five constitutional judges nominated by parliament. When they took their oath of office in front of parliament instead, court president Bogdan Swieczkowski, who was nominated during the PiS era, refused them access to the building.

Supporters of the opposition PiS and right-wing radical parties demonstrated in front of the headquarters of the Constitutional Court. They see the replacement of the previous court president as unlawful - and accuse the government of exactly what the PiS was previously accused of: that it had made the judiciary its subject. Many demonstrators also simply expressed their dislike for Poland's head of government and followed PiS's anti-German narratives. So they chanted: “Tusk to Berlin!” and “This is Poland!”. Background: Tusk liked to portray Poland's right as a puppet of the federal government.

For many protesters, the details of the power struggle over the Constitutional Court seem irrelevant. "You have to defend the fatherland! After all, they want to abolish the Constitutional Court," said an older woman. And pensioner Jerzy (65) fears: “The government will soon ban all opposition parties.” Of course, during its time in power, the PiS itself did everything it could to force state institutions, the country's judiciary and the media to follow its line.

The latest events were triggered by Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska's announcement that the previous court president, Swieczkowski, and his deputy had been replaced and that she herself would take over the leadership on an interim basis. Swieczkowski did not want to accept this and spoke of a coup.

Korwin-Piotrowska is one of the five constitutional judges that Nawrocki did not want to be sworn in. Apparently both Tusk's government and the constitutional judges it nominated have had enough of the political right blocking everything. The European Court of Human Rights had already decided in May that the newly nominated judges should begin their work.

Korwin-Piotrowska now told TVP that Swieczkowski had made the court incapable of acting by not admitting the new judges. As the oldest person in the service, she therefore called a meeting of all constitutional judges for November 3rd.

Tusk stressed in a statement on X that it was his government's duty to restore the rule of law in Poland. "After years of lawlessness under the PiS government, this is a difficult, sometimes painful process that requires decisive action. There is no other way."

The ongoing clinch between the former amateur boxer Nawrocki and Prime Minister Tusk is not only driving Poland's divided society even further apart, but has also weakened the country politically. Poland has actually gained importance in the EU and NATO as an important political and military ally of Ukraine, which is attacked by Russia, but cannot fully exploit this potential on the international stage because it does not speak with one voice.

Critics accuse Nawrocki and the PiS of deliberately escalating the dispute and driving the country into a state crisis, as this is particularly damaging to the government. There are parliamentary elections next year - and voters could blame Tusk in particular for the chaos surrounding the Constitutional Court and the associated destabilization of the state structure.

The PiS, on the other hand, would probably benefit if it tightened its grip. In this way, she may be able to win over more voters from the right-wing radical spectrum. Nawrocki is very popular there with his brutal style. And unlike Tusk, he has a lot of time: his term runs until 2030.

Lech Walesa, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of Poland, has assured Prime Minister Donald Tusk of his support in the escalating dispute over the Polish Constitutional Court. “The fatherland is in need!” wrote Walesa on his Facebook page. “I stand with you in the front row – no matter what the circumstances.” He also calls on his fellow campaigners “from our common struggle to support our aspirations,” wrote Walesa.

Walesa led the strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk in August 1980, which led to concessions by the communist government and the founding of the Solidarity trade union as the first independent union in the communist sphere of influence. The electrician with the distinctive mustache became a symbol of the Polish struggle for freedom.

In view of the escalation in the dispute over the Polish Constitutional Court, two of the country's ambassadors have announced their resignation. “In view of the attempt to illegally take over the Constitutional Tribunal, I no longer see any possibility of continuing to fulfill the role of Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Romania,” wrote Pawel Soloch, Poland’s ambassador to Bucharest, on the X platform.

A few hours earlier, his counterpart in China, Jakub Kumoch, had also stated on X that, due to the events in Poland, he had realized that he could no longer work as ambassador. According to the Polish news agency PAP, both diplomats were former employees of the then national conservative President Andrzej Duda.

Like his successor Karol Nawrocki, Duda was close to the national-conservative PiS party, which ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023 and filled the court with politically close judges. After a center-left alliance led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk took over the government after the 2023 parliamentary election, the PiS government's controversial innovations in the judiciary are to be reversed.