Opening a Cabinet meeting in the early afternoon, Donald Tusk said defending the Tribunal and its judges' working conditions was an obvious obligation of the executive branch, but using force on its premises was not.
He argued that judges legally elected by parliament had the right and the duty to begin work, and urged Nawrocki to "de-escalate" a situation he blamed the president for creating.
The latest crisis began on Friday evening when a group of judges chosen by the current parliament announced that one of their number, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, was now in charge of the Tribunal.
They said she had suspended its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy Bartłomiej Sochański.
As protests grew outside the court, Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal and visited the premises, declaring on Saturday that the constitutional order had been violated and a constitutional body seized by force.
Suspended court chief denied entry
On Tuesday, Święczkowski said that police had again refused him entry to the building, despite his role as its "administrator."
Rejecting Korwin-Piotrowska's leadership, he dismissed a meeting of judges convened by her for later in the day as an "usurpation" with no legal effect, warning that officers and other participants could face criminal liability.
Święczkowski told reporters that another judge, Stanisław Piotrowicz, had been authorised to run the court in his absence under an April order.
However, Deputy Justice Minister Dariusz Mazur questioned the validity of that document.
Security concerns
Tusk also linked the crisis to security concerns, noting that pro-Russian figures, including far-right MEP Grzegorz Braun, had appeared outside the court on Friday and that Kremlin officials had commented on the turmoil.
Russia's former President Dmitry Medvedev and the country's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, as well as former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, had also weighed in on the dispute, the Polish prime minister said.
He pointed to an ongoing investigation into a former Polish soldier fighting for Russia who had called for the government's overthrow, adding that he would raise the issue at a National Security Council meeting later on Tuesday.
Tusk also indicated that once the judges he regards as legitimate begin their work, a broader debate on amending the constitution could commence.
However, securing a parliamentary majority for such changes appeared unlikely.
(ał/gs)
Source: PAP