Poland has been plunged into a fresh constitutional court crisis after the pro-European government moved to suspend the president of the Constitutional Tribunal, the country’s highest court. The decision triggered protests outside the tribunal building in Warsaw, the deployment of riot police, and an urgent return home by the Polish president, who cut short a diplomatic visit to Senegal to deal with the unfolding confrontation.
Inside the constitutional court crisis
The dispute is the latest chapter in a long struggle over Poland’s judiciary, which has pitted successive governments against a tribunal whose composition and rulings remain bitterly contested. Supporters of the government’s move argue that the court’s leadership lost legitimacy years ago; opponents say suspending its president crosses a line that threatens the separation of powers itself. Our international news pages have tracked how judicial battles in Warsaw keep drawing in Poland’s European partners.
Protests on the streets
Demonstrators gathered outside the Constitutional Tribunal as news of the suspension spread, and riot police were deployed to keep rival groups apart. The scenes recalled earlier rounds of Poland’s rule-of-law conflict, when court reforms brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets and froze billions of euros in EU funding. As the global digest reports, the president’s abrupt return from Africa underlines how seriously the presidency views the escalation.
Europe watches closely
Brussels has spent years alternately pressuring and rewarding Warsaw over judicial independence, and officials will be studying the legal basis of the suspension before reacting. For Poland’s government, the gamble is that voters tired of institutional gridlock will accept a decisive move; for its critics, the fear is a precedent that any inconvenient court leadership can simply be removed.
What is clear is that Poland’s constitutional standoff is far from settled. With the president back in Warsaw and protesters still in the streets, the coming days will show whether negotiation can lower the temperature or whether the crisis deepens further.
