EU Backs Tusk in Escalating Standoff Over Poland's Top Court

The European Commission said Sunday that Poland's parliament must have the power to appoint new judges, throwing its weight behind Prime Minister Donald Tusk in an escalating standoff over the country's Constitutional Tribunal.

The dispute pits Tusk's government against President Karol Nawrocki over efforts to reverse judicial changes introduced by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government between 2015 and 2023, which drew condemnation from European courts over concerns about judicial independence. Nawrocki, elected with PiS backing in 2025, has refused to swear in Tribunal judges elected by the current parliamentary majority, while the court's PiS-linked leadership has blocked them from working.

"The Polish Constitutional Tribunal needs to be able to function in accordance with the Polish constitution and the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU," Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and the Rule of Law Michael McGrath told POLITICO, adding that "the Venice Commission has been clear that appointing the new judges lies within the power of the Sejm," Poland's lower house of parliament.

Tusk vowed Saturday night not to back down. "In some matters there can be no compromise," he said in an address to the nation, comparing calls for reconciliation to a thief demanding to keep half the contents of a stolen handbag. "We have waited too long for the treasure of an independent, democratic Poland to be frightened into retreat."

The prime minister also took aim at Nawrocki, who turned his plane around mid-flight en route to Senegal and returned to Warsaw, where he pushed his way into the Tribunal shortly after midnight Saturday. "In a state governed by the rule of law, a politician cannot enter a court or tribunal and give orders or intimidate judges, even if he is the president," Tusk said.

The latest clash was triggered Friday, when Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, taking charge of the Tribunal, suspended its president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and his deputy, Bartlomiej Sochanski, after they had blocked judges elected by the Tusk-led majority from working for months. Nawrocki denounced the move as an unlawful takeover and held talks with parliamentary leaders Saturday that were boycotted by Tusk's Civic Coalition and its government ally, the New Left.

Korwin-Piotrowska has convened an assembly of Tribunal judges for Tuesday, potentially setting up another confrontation over who controls the court. McGrath stopped short of endorsing Friday's suspensions.

(Featured image: The Constitutional Tribunal building in Warsaw. Photo: Wistula, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.)