Polish President Orders Police Lift Constitutional Blockage

O Polish President Karol Narowcki today called for the “reestablishment of the legal order” and ordered the police to lift the blockade imposed by the Prime Minister’s Government, Donald Tusk, around the Constitutional Court.

After several hours inside the judicial headquarters, Nawrocki left the upper court building, according to Polish agency PAP, after the spokesman of the Presidency, Pavel Szefernaker, read an official statement on his behalf.

“ Tonight there was a violation of the constitutional order of Poland and a takeover by the force of a constitutional body of the state. I kept consultations with the president of the Supreme Court, which also does not consider legal the actions taken by the people who usurped power in the Constitutional Court ", announced.

The President demanded that “reestablish the legal order” and asked the security forces sent by the Government of Tusk to “leave the vicinity of the court”.

Finally, the Head of State called on the parliamentary authorities urgently to “stabilise” the situation.

“Face the threat to the internal security of the Republic of Poland, I have called for urgent consultations today with the participation of representatives of parliamentary forces, with the aim of achieving the stabilisation of the political situation and restoring the constitutional order,” he said.

The political crisis surrounding the Polish Constitutional Court intensified this Friday evening, with the police being mobilized to the building of the highest court in the country, within the framework of an impasse between the nationalist right and the current centrist government on the appointment of members to the judiciary.

The Nationalist President interrupted a scheduled flight to Senegal, where he was on an official visit, and returned urgently to Warsaw.

After meeting in the presidential palace with the first President of the Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapinski addressed the Constitutional, which was surrounded by protesters and police.

Images of local television allowed Narowcki to cross a crowd, in the midst of a great confusion, and then a cordon of agents equipped with shields and helmets before arriving in court.

Dozens of intervention police blocked access to the building to the numerous supporters of the national-conservative party Law and Justice (PiS, opposition) gathered in front of it, who tried to force security bars placed by the forces of order.

PiS sympathizers have been demonstrating for several weeks to support the judges of the highest court in the country, appointed by the nationalist right when it ruled. The government of Centrist Donald Tusk wants his way out, while Nawrocki defends them.

“ This is a coup d'état by Prime Minister Donald Tusk (...). He is stepping on our constitutional rights,” Tomasz Zaleski, one of the protesters, denounced to AFP.

Figures from the radical right and the far right joined the protesters throughout the night.

The police indicated that they arrested three people who allegedly tried to enter the Constitutional enclosure.

Considered too dependent on political power by the European Union, the Constitutional Court was one of the points of disagreement between Brussels and nationalists during their term of office (2015-2023), as they advocate the primacy of Polish EU legislation.

Already in 2015, the PiS government had appointed for the Constitutional judges openly committed politically, which neither Donald Tusk nor the European Union recognize.

Since his return to power in 2023, Donald Tusk, former President of the European Council, has promised to solve the crisis. There has been no success so far, since the nominations of its Government and Diet (the lower chamber of Parliament) to the Court have not been ratified by the head of state, which blocks them.

“Reestablishing the rule of law is our duty,” Donald Tusk said on social network X after police intervention.

“ After years of illegality under the PiS government, this is a difficult, sometimes painful process that requires resolute action. There is no other way,” he added.