Poland's Donald Tusk refuses to back down and calls critics hypocrites as he faces accusations of a 'constitutional coup'
President Karol Nawrocki inside the Constitutional Tribunal in the early hours of Saturday, confronting Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, the government-backed judge who declared herself head of the court, and the other newly appointed judges, telling them they 'are not judges'. He had turned his plane around mid-flight to Senegal to return to Warsaw.President Karol Nawrocki pushes through the police cordon outside the Constitutional Tribunal shortly before 1am. Government-appointed judges had suspended the court's president, Bogdan Święczkowski, a move the tribunal itself called 'the crime of a coup d'état'.A locksmith cuts through the gate chains of Poland's Constitutional Tribunal as Bogdan Święczkowski, the suspended court president and former PiS deputy justice minister, attempted to enter the building with opposition…Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, whose government's appointees on the Constitutional Tribunal suspended its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and moved to strip him and his deputy of immunity, the move the tribunal has called 'the crime of a coup d'état'.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk delivered a defiant prime-time television address on Saturday, calling critics hypocrites and vowing there "can be no compromise" over his government's seizure of procedural control at the Constitutional Tribunal. Government-backed judges suspended court president Bogdan Swieczkowski and his deputy Bartlomiej Sochanski — both PiS appointees the EU has long deemed illegitimately installed — and justice minister Waldemar Zurek sought to strip them of immunity to face criminal charges.
President Karol Nawrocki abandoned a state visit to Senegal mid-flight, forced his way through police into the court building, and was still inside at 4am.
The court itself declared on social media that "all persons participating in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d'etat."
Tusk hit back, saying PiS's packed tribunal had cost Poland billions in frozen EU funds and that "no politician can enter a court to issue orders — not even the president."
