Poland’s Top Court Seized in Power Struggle as Nawrocki Rushes Home

Breaking · Warsaw, Poland · Oct. 30, 2026

We summarize. You read the outlet. Source: Arkadiusz Mularczyk MEP on X · short original summary · full reporting at the source

Breaking card: We The People Press (illustration, not a photo).

‼️ A coup d’état is underway in Poland. The forces acting on behalf of the current government have unlawfully entered the Constitutional Tribunal and are preventing legally appointed judges from entering.

The President of Poland is urgently cutting short his visit abroad and…
— Arkadiusz Mularczyk MEP (@ArekMularczyk) October 30, 2026

Post: Arkadiusz Mularczyk MEP on X, Oct. 30, 2026. Open on X →

President Nawrocki, who was flying to Senegal, turned his plane around. “At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning,” he wrote on X. He landed in Warsaw shortly before 10 p.m., met with Święczkowski and Supreme Court First President Zbigniew Kapiński, and went to the tribunal overnight. By his own statement, he enabled Vice-President Sochański to enter the building. In a statement read outside the court before dawn Saturday, Nawrocki said the constitutional order had been violated by “a forcible takeover of a constitutional state body,” and he called urgent consultations with parliamentary parties.

On Saturday morning Święczkowski tried again to enter the building.

The government’s case

Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended the move on X: “Restoring the rule of law is our obligation. After years of lawlessness under PiS, this process is difficult. It can be challenging and requires decisive action. There is no other way.”

Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek said he had filed motions to lift the immunity of Święczkowski and Sochański. “This court has become private property; we must restore its proper functioning,” he told reporters, according to AFP.

Agnieszka Pomaska, a lawmaker in Tusk’s Civic Coalition, posted a widely shared rebuttal: “No, it’s not a coup. The attack on Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal began years ago, when three unlawfully appointed judges were sworn in under cover of darkness.”

No, it’s not a coup.
The attack on Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal began years ago, when three unlawfully appointed judges were sworn in under cover of darkness. Poland paid a heavy price.
Now it’s time to restore the rule of law and let lawfully elected judges do their job.
— Agnieszka Pomaska (@pomaska) October 30, 2026

Post: Agnieszka Pomaska on X, Oct. 30. Open on X →

The opposition’s case

The tribunal’s own official X account called the events a “coup d’état” and said Korwin-Piotrowska “is not a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal.”

Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a PiS member of the European Parliament, wrote in the most viral post on the story: “A coup d’état is underway in Poland. The forces acting on behalf of the current government have unlawfully entered the Constitutional Tribunal and are preventing legally appointed judges from entering.”

Święczkowski told protesters: “You can take over a building by trickery, but you cannot take over a constitutional organ of the state.”

The conservative legal group Ordo Iuris called the suspension order “a legally non-existent act,” arguing a judge who has not sworn her oath before the president cannot act for the tribunal, and that she ruled on her own status.

In Brussels, ECR group co-chair Nicola Procaccini called it a “clear and serious violation of the rule of law.” Co-chair Patryk Jaki accused the government of using police to install people he described as “impersonating judges.”

Where the EU fits in

Despite claims online, no EU judges carried out this action. The suspension was ordered by a Polish judge elected by the Polish parliament, and the police are Polish. The EU link is background. In December 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that irregular appointments of three tribunal judges and its president meant the tribunal did not meet EU standards of independence. Earlier this month, the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, which is not an EU body, said Nawrocki should swear in the Sejm-elected judges. As of Saturday, the European Commission had not commented, according to Euronews.

Why it matters for Poland and the EU

The tribunal at the center of this week’s standoff has been the main battleground between Warsaw and Brussels for years.

On October 7, 2021, the tribunal ruled in case K 3/21 that some EU treaty provisions were incompatible with Poland’s constitution. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “deeply concerned” and vowed to “use all the powers that we have under the treaties.” Reuters reported the ruling raised fears among EU officials and many Poles of an eventual “Polexit,” which PiS said it had no plans for. That December, the Commission opened an infringement case over the ruling. Separately, on October 27, 2021, the EU’s top court fined Poland €1 million a day over its judges’ disciplinary chamber.

The infringement case ended on December 18, 2025. The Court of Justice ruled (C-448/23) that the K 3/21 ruling and a related July 2021 ruling breached EU law. It also ruled that irregular appointments in 2015 and 2016 meant the tribunal was not an independent, lawfully established court.

Money followed the law. The Commission froze Poland’s EU funds in 2022 over rule-of-law concerns. On February 29, 2024, it cleared the way for up to €137 billion: €59.8 billion in recovery funds and €76.5 billion in cohesion and other programs. It cited judicial reforms by the Tusk government.

Sovereignty advocates see the tribunal as Poland’s shield against Brussels. Ordo Iuris calls the court “a separate power” that the executive cannot touch. Nawrocki calls this week’s action “a forcible takeover.” ECR co-chair Nicola Procaccini says respect for national sovereignty should not depend on political alliances.

The Tusk government sees things the opposite way. In its view, a tribunal that complies with EU standards is part of restoring the rule of law, and those standards are tied to Poland’s EU membership obligations and its EU funds.

That means this week’s move lines up with what the EU demanded. It is not Poland escaping EU control. Sovereigntists argue the reverse: that Brussels’ standards are being used to capture Poland’s highest court.

What we know / What’s disputed

What we know

Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska ordered the suspension of Święczkowski and Sochański on October 30.
Police secured the tribunal and detained three protesters.
Nawrocki aborted his Senegal trip, returned to Warsaw, and entered the tribunal overnight.
Tusk and Justice Minister Żurek publicly backed the move. Żurek seeks to lift both men’s immunity.
Korwin-Piotrowska called a general assembly of judges for November 3.
The CJEU ruled against the tribunal’s composition in December 2025.

What’s disputed

Whether Korwin-Piotrowska is a lawful judge, since she was not sworn in before the president.
Whether Article 130, written for ordinary courts, can apply to the Constitutional Tribunal at all.
Whether this is a “coup,” as PiS figures and the tribunal’s X account say, or a “restoration of the rule of law,” as the government says. That is a political characterization, not a legal ruling.
Claims that the EU directed the move. We found no evidence of this.
Reports on X of ambassadors resigning in protest. We could not confirm these with a news outlet.

What’s next

Nawrocki’s consultations with party leaders begin this weekend. The disputed judges’ assembly is set for November 3. Lifting Święczkowski’s immunity requires votes from 10 judges, and the Sejm-elected bloc is still short. Poland has two people claiming to run its top court, and no referee both sides accept.

Sources

You decide what to trust.