A leadership dispute at Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal intensified after Anna Korwin-Piotrowska said she ordered a one-month pause for its president and vice president, with both sides contesting who can direct the court.
A notice describing the orders appeared on the Tribunal’s website at about 1 p.m. ET Friday, Oct. 30. The court’s official X account said the website had been taken over, said Korwin-Piotrowska was not a Tribunal judge and maintained that Bogdan Święczkowski remained president. The Associated Press reported that the website went offline soon afterward and that it could not independently verify the notice’s stated reasons.
The Sejm elected Korwin-Piotrowska to a Tribunal seat on March 13, 2026, but the law says a judge begins service only after taking an oath before the president. President Karol Nawrocki has not administered oaths to several judges selected by parliament. In May 2026, the European Court of Human Rights issued an interim measure concerning four judges, calling on Poland to ensure authorities did not hinder them from taking up and exercising their judicial duties.
A copy of the notice published by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna cited Article 130 of the Common Courts Act. The law permits an immediate suspension of up to one month in specified circumstances, followed by disciplinary-court review; it assigns a suspension involving a court president to the justice minister. The Act’s reach over the Constitutional Tribunal and the orders’ legal force are both at issue.
Warsaw Capital Police said officers were outside the Tribunal building, on its grounds and on the public Aleja Szucha, but had not entered the building. Police said they detained three people after they crossed a fence onto the grounds and reported that objects were thrown at officers.
The Tribunal rules on whether legislation and other legal acts conform to Poland’s Constitution. Controversy over its appointments and authority has persisted since the Law and Justice government held power from 2015 to 2023. On Dec. 18, 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Poland had breached EU law, finding serious appointment irregularities meant the Tribunal did not meet EU-law standards for an independent and impartial tribunal. EconoTimes previously covered an earlier escalation in the same standoff.
In a post translated from Polish, Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X, “Restoring the rule of law is our obligation.” Law and Justice leader Jarosław Kaczyński said in a separate translated post that Poland was becoming a “police state.”
Rzeczpospolita reported that Korwin-Piotrowska told TVN24 she had called a General Assembly of Tribunal judges for Tuesday, Nov. 3, to consider the court’s 2027 budget.
