A leadership dispute at Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal escalated after Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska said she had suspended tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski and his deputy Bartłomiej Sochański. She assumed the president’s duties and called the police, while protesters assembled outside the cordoned-off building.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported the developments on Friday, October 30. Święczkowski and Sochański rejected their removal, and a post on the tribunal’s official X account described the episode as an “unconstitutional takeover” and disputed Korwin-Piotrowska’s status as a judge.

Polish Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek also submitted motions seeking to lift the immunity of Święczkowski and Sochański. President Karol Nawrocki turned his plane around while traveling for an official visit to Senegal, saying that the president should be in Poland at such a moment.

The confrontation follows years of conflict over the tribunal and intensified in mid-October. Donald Tusk’s government rejects the continued presence of judges appointed during Law and Justice rule and does not recognize the tribunal’s decisions, while the opposing camp challenges judges appointed under the current government.