WARSAW — The battle over who rules Poland is being fought in front of a cream-colored palace in central Warsaw — surrounded by police and protesters — that houses the country’s top constitutional court.
Liberal, pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk wants to roll back changes to the Constitutional Tribunal made by the previous nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party government, while President Karol Nawrocki is fighting — even physically — to keep the PiS-aligned judges in charge.
The government insists the court must be overhauled to restore rule of law and conform with EU norms on impartiality, while Nawrocki’s supporters accuse Tusk of backing a coup.
Police deployed during stand-off over control of top Poland court
Image caption,Officers were faced down by critics of the move outside the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw
ByAdam Easton
Warsaw
Published30 October 2026
Updated 31 October 2026
Riot police have been deployed at Poland’s Constitutional Court amid an escalating stand-off between the government and the court’s top judges.
The row pits the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk against his predecessors from the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS).
The police intervention came after Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said he had requested stripping the court’s President Bogdan Święczkowski and Vice-President Bartłomiej Sochański of their immunity from prosecution to bring criminal charges against them.
Tusk has vowed to depoliticise the judiciary, and on Friday defended the move as PiS supporters gathered outside the court premises in Warsaw in protest.
With Donald Tusk’s coalition vulnerable, Poland could swing sharply right in 2027. But the fragmented far-right is trapped between bashing Brussels, and having a coherent enough EU policy to be taken seriously by voters.
Polish nationalists demonstrating against European Union in Warsaw on May 1, 2019. (Alamy/Szymon Mucha)
ARPACZ, Poland — Across the European Union, far-right parties such as France’s National Rally and Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland are coalescing and building strength, as they aim to win elections and enter governments this year or next.
But the situation on the right in Poland is different. Instead of aligning around a single message to take on the political mainstream, four different right-wing parties are in an all-out turf war over the future of the Polish right.
The issue that’s dividing them the most — and could be the greatest electoral liability come 2027 — is the European Union. The furthest right parties are calling for Polexit, while right parties closer to the center are choosing to critique specific EU policies without calls to leave the bloc.
That tension has put the Polish right in a difficult position — carry an anti-EU position that shows it is not part of the mainstream and is ready to protect Polish national interests, such as refusing to comply with EU climate or migration laws, but one serious enough that other parties would still be willing to form a coalition with them.
“You start having this kind of a very awkward choice in Poland between a mainstream, which you kind of despise, and lunatics, which you are simply afraid of,” Spasimir Domaradzki, a political scientist at the University of Warsaw, said. “Parties will be searching to find this balance between frustration with the government and pretending to be a bit more reasonable.”
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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