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Poland’s PM says president has backed away from talks over constitutional court

06.11.2026 23:50
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said President Karol Nawrocki has "for some reason" backed away from a planned one-on-one meeting aimed at easing tensions over the country’s Constitutional Tribunal.
Polands PM Donald Tusk speaking to reporters in Warsaw on Friday.
Poland's PM Donald Tusk speaking to reporters in Warsaw on Friday.Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak

Speaking to reporters in parliament on Friday evening, Tusk said it would not be the last attempt and that the two would "probably meet in future."

The idea of talks emerged after Tuesday’s National Security Council meeting, where Nawrocki said events at the Tribunal amounted to a serious constitutional crisis.

Tusk then offered to meet that week to discuss "how to permanently lower tensions in the country."

He recounted that Nawrocki later told him he would text a proposed time and place.

Asked what the president’s message said, Tusk avoided a direct answer, saying only that its tone was "very cordial."

Pressed on whether the meeting would now happen, he said he had a theory about why the president was "afraid" of it for now, "but perhaps that fear will pass."

The two sides have also traded words over conditions for talks.

Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the president’s office, said on X that the president’s position was that police cordons should leave the Tribunal’s grounds and “legitimate judges” should be allowed in.

Jan Grabiec, who heads the prime minister’s chancellery, and spoke to Bogucki, said Nawrocki’s side had raised preconditions, which he called inappropriate.

The president and PM, he said, should be able to talk without them.

Tusk also declined to say how likely a "reset" of the Tribunal, proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, might be.

The dispute over Poland' constitutional court escalated last week.

A group of judges elected by the current parliament said Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska had taken charge as its longest-serving member and ordered the court's president Bogdan Święczkowski and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, to stop performing their duties.

Nawrocki said on Saturday that the constitutional order had been violated and a constitutional body "seized by force."

Immunity motions

Separately, prosecutors have asked the Tribunal to lift the immunity of both Święczkowski and Sochański so they can be charged, including over alleged manipulation of the court's panels of judges.

Święczkowski has called the allegations "nonsense and slander."

The Polish news website Onet reported that one request also asks for consent to detain him.

The Tribunal’s general assembly is due to consider the motions on 17 November.

(ał)

Source: PAP