Heavy protests against the decision to suspend the President of the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland

Political instability and heavy protests are being witnessed in the country following the decision to suspend Bogdan Swieckowski, the President of the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland. This controversy has escalated to such an extent that President Karol Nawrocki has decided to cut short his foreign visit to Senegal and return to Warsaw immediately. Meanwhile, police have been deployed outside the Tribunal's headquarters and protesters are accusing the government of carrying out a 'constitutional coup' (coup d'état).

According to an NDTV report, this entire crisis began when a fellow judge of the Constitutional Tribunal suspended two senior judges. Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska issued an order suspending Tribunal President Bogdan Swieckowski and Vice-President Bartlomiej Sochanski from their duties. Korwin-Piotrowska accused both these judges of obstructing the work of judges elected by the parliamentary majority, violating the judicial process, and preventing the court from functioning properly.

The Tribunal has reacted strongly against this order. The Tribunal has clarified on its website that President Bogdan Swieckowski and Vice-President Bartlomiej Sochanski still remain in their posts. The Tribunal wrote on the social media platform X, "All persons participating in these activities are committing the crime of a coup d'état." According to reports, the government is also preparing to take criminal action against these two judges.

According to a Amar Ujala report, the protest outside the Tribunal headquarters was very intense. Supporters of the opposition right-wing party 'Law and Justice Party' (PiS) gathered outside. Dozens of police officers protected the building. Some protesters tried to break security barricades, while others were chanting slogans like "Tusk is a traitor". Meanwhile, it is also learned that the police have arrested three protesters.

President Karol Nawrocki wrote on X, "At such a time, the President must be in Poland." He has termed this incident as "a threat to internal security" and decided to hold immediate discussions with representatives of political parties on Saturday. He is also likely to meet with the First President of the Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapinski.

This dispute has essentially brought back into discussion the long-standing feud between Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government and the previous PiS administration. The beginning of this controversy dates back to 2015 when the right-wing Law and Justice Party came to power. At that time, the PiS parliamentary majority took steps for the appointment of judges to the Constitutional Tribunal. These appointments became controversial because the PiS majority appointed three such judges whose posts had already been filled by the previous parliament. This raised questions on the legality of the court's appointments and its independence.

The European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union subsequently ruled that the appointment of these three judges was done improperly. The European courts also ruled that Poland's Constitutional Tribunal can no longer be considered an "independent and impartial tribunal". After coming to power in 2023, Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised to restore the rule of law and reverse the changes made to the judiciary under the previous PiS government.

The Tusk government argues that the previous government undermined judicial independence by changing the method of appointing courts and judges. The Tusk government has used the European court rulings to challenge the legitimacy of the Constitutional Tribunal and has even stopped publishing the Tribunal's rulings. On the other hand, Nawrocki and his predecessor Andrzej Duda have used their presidential veto power to block Tusk's proposed reforms. Due to this, the government is struggling to carry out judicial reforms.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X, "Restoring the rule of law is our duty." He further added, "After years of legal anarchy under the leadership of PiS, this is a difficult process, which is sometimes even painful and requires decisive steps to be taken. There is no other way." The Tusk government has been trying for the past few weeks to remove those judges from the court who were appointed by the PiS government ruling between 2015 and 2023. This court repeatedly gave precedence to Polish laws over European Union laws, due to which the European Union accused Poland's Supreme Court of being too close to the nationalist political authority of that time.