Polish President Abruptly Reroutes Flight As Police Surround Constitutional Court

Poland has descended into a momentary crisis of government, with some oppositionists going so far as to claim a "coup" is underway, but it's still perhaps far too early to know where things stand on the ground.

Polish Police on Friday night have apparently surrounded and cordoned off the headquarters of the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw, coming amid a running crisis over the body's leadership which has pitted Prime Minister Donald Tusk against his two main political adversaries

Tusk and his governing coalition are in a standoff with allies of the former Law and Justice (PiS) administration, as well as the current president of the country, Karol Nawrocki.

The Friday night chaos started when it was the Polish official agency PAP which was the first to report that court chief Bogdan Święczkowski and his number two, Bartlomiej Sochanski, were suspended for a month by order of Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska.

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has ordered a raid on the offices of the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw, prompting President Karol Nawrocki to turn his plane around mid-flight. The court is responsible for ensuring that parliamentary legislation complies with the Polish Constitution.

—European Media

"The duties of the president of the Constitutional Court, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy were suspended," EuroNews confirms.

"Today, I issued an order immediately suspending the duties of Mr. Bogdan Święczkowski, acting president of the Constitutional Tribunal. I issued the same order with respect to Judge Bartłomiej Sochański, acting vice president of the Constitutional Tribunal," she announced, with changes quickly reflected in the tribunal's website.

The primary responsibility of the tribunal is conducting judicial review to verify that Polish statutes adhere to constitutional standards.

According to more context via Reuters:

The tribunal said ‌on ⁠its website that the court's president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, had been suspended on Friday. A long-running political dispute over the ​Constitutional Tribunal ​has ⁠effectively paralysed the institution. Earlier this year, Nawrocki, an ally of ​Poland's former nationalist government, refused ​to ⁠swear in three of six judges nominated by parliament, while Swieczkowski declined ⁠to ​allow judges elected by ​the current parliamentary majority to assume their duties.

The police action at the tribunal then prompted Polish President Nawrocki to abrubtly turn back his plane ‌en route to Senegal for a scheduled state visit.

"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.

Major accusations fly...

Protesters soon descended on the same location, as well as police. From there...

Opposition leader Jarosław Kaczyński has described the police action as a “coup” against the Constitutional Tribunal involving services under the government of pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk. 

There's meanwhile been confusion over Judge Korwin-Piotrowska's order, which additionally reflected the court's leadership changes on its website:

Shortly after, the Constitutional Tribunal itself released a message on its social networks stating that the page had been the object of an "illegal takeover", that Korwin-Piotrowska was not acting on behalf of the court, and that anyone involved in these actions "is committing the crime of coup d’état".

In an initial public reaction on social media, Tusk maintained that the restoration of the rule of law "is a duty" and that "after years of arbitrariness" "a difficult, sometimes painful process that requires determined action" has begun because "there is no other way".

The situation on the ground in the capital overnight...

As things stand, each side is accusing the other of coup-like activities and democratic backsliding, and eroding important checks and balances.