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State crisis in Poland: Struggle for sovereignty of interpretation
In Poland, the dispute over the Constitutional Court escalates and turns into a national crisis. The populists are benefiting from the escalation. more...
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The worse the power struggle over the Constitutional Court in Poland gets, the better it is for Polish President Karol Nawrocki and the right-wing national opposition party PiS, which is mockingly called “Law and Justice”. Both - the party and the PiS-affiliated president - are escalating the situation and acting as if they were not the culprits in the unconstitutionally occupied Constitutional Court, but rather the current center-left government under Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The escalation reached its peak when President Nawrocki stormed the Polish Constitutional Court with his bodyguards around one o'clock on Saturday night and tried to force the judges who were waiting there to hand him the keys to the court. The ex-boxer even violently pushed the presiding judge aside.
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.
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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.