Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) rejected the idea that Poland had suffered a coup.
"Neither a putsch nor a coup d’etat took place in Poland on Friday," its Warsaw correspondent Stefan Locke wrote. "The parliament, government and president, all democratically elected, have kept their offices and recognise one another."
Locke said the real fight was between national-conservative and liberal forces over a court that "should actually be neutral," but has not been since the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party took power in 2015 and filled it with party politicians.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government has tried to clean up the judiciary since 2023, but President Karol Nawrocki is standing in the way, Locke wrote.
"By refusing, for political reasons, to accept the oath from lawfully elected judges, the president is exceeding his powers, because the rules give him no such right," he said.
Tusk, however, was also using "dubious methods," Locke added, calling the suspension of the tribunal’s president "at least questionable."
Poland's constitutional crisis "shows a dilemma that critics foresaw long ago: PiS’s breach of the rule of law can only be healed by another breach of the law," Locke wrote.
'Banana republic'
Sueddeutsche Zeitung commentator Viktoria Grossmann said the escalation was “not only disturbing but also embarrassing" for Poles, citing a respected lawyer who said the country looked like a "banana republic."
She pointed to video footage of Nawrocki entering the tribunal building, saying he likes to box in his spare time and admits to a hooligan past. It is "“hard to build a state, especially a state governed by the rule of law" with such people, she wrote.
Grossmann was sceptical that a compromise could save the court, saying PiS and its far-right allies were unwilling to share power.
"Reason does not appeal to the political opponent," she wrote.
She also said the crisis should serve as a warning to Europeans to strengthen their democratic institutions.
'Almost a civil war'
In France, the dispute has become a campaign issue, with some observers fearing a similar crisis if far-right leader Marine Le Pen, the poll favourite, wins the presidency in six months.
Le Monde said Poland’s political debate had taken the form of "almost a civil war." Like many centrist and left-wing commentators, it blamed years of rule-of-law breaches by PiS.
Right-leaning media saw a more complex picture and criticised the European Union for failing to react firmly to what Le Figaro called the "use of force in the name of restoring the rule of law."
“It’s double standards: the right can do nothing, but the camp of progress can do everything," said Guillaume Roquette, editor-in-chief of Le Figaro Magazine.
Le Pen, who herself accused French authorities of politicising the Constitutional Council to block her anti-immigration platform, said in a post on X on Sunday that "the serious events currently unfolding in Poland around the Constitutional Tribunal are giving rise to profound concern."
In response, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski told her to stay out of Polish politics.
(jh/gs)