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Poland’s justice minister and president’s office trade accusations over tribunal clash

03.11.2026 11:50
Poland’s justice minister and the president’s office have given opposing accounts of a confrontation between Karol Nawrocki and a judge at the Constitutional Tribunal, each accusing the other side of using force.
The area outside the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw.
The area outside the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw.Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka

Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek said on Monday that there was "hard evidence" that Nawrocki had entered the Tribunal without authorisation and pushed people, including Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska.

He said the incident may have breached the legal protections afforded to the court and the physical integrity of those inside.

According to Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the president’s office, footage posted online clearly showed Korwin-Piotrowska trying to push Nawrocki out.

He said a prosecutor at the scene had secured recordings made inside the building.

No investigation has yet been opened, Żurek added, as prosecutors are still reviewing the complaints.

Piotr Antoni Skiba, a spokesman for the Warsaw regional prosecutor’s office, said it had received five complaints.

They include allegations of an attack on a constitutional body, an infringement of the legal protections afforded to judges, and an assault on the president.

The confrontation followed events on Friday evening, when judges elected by parliament during its current term announced that Korwin-Piotrowska, as the Tribunal’s longest-serving judge, had taken charge of the institution.

They said she had ordered a suspension of the duties of the Tribunal’s president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański.

Korwin-Piotrowska explained that she and six other judges elected during the current parliamentary term were in the building.

As protests outside the building grew, Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal and returned to Warsaw.

After meeting Zbigniew Kapiński, the head of the Supreme Court, he went to the Tribunal.

On Saturday, Nawrocki said the country's legal order had been violated and that a constitutional state body had been taken over by force.

He convened urgent consultations with parliamentary groups, but the ruling Civic Coalition (KO) and Left parties did not attend.

Later that day, Prime Minister Tusk said the attack on the Tribunal and its judges was another stage in the destruction of the rule of law in Poland by the Law and Justice (PiS) party and successive presidents Andrzej Duda and Karol Nawrocki.

(ał)

Source: PAP