Warsaw police blockaded the Polish Constitutional Court after the impeachment of the head of the court, Bogdan Swieczkowski. Polish President Karol Norucki (who was elected in 2025 and supports the national conservative opposition) urgently cut short his official visit to Senegal and is returning to Warsaw.
The institutional conflict began earlier this year when Nawrocki, an ally of Kaczynski, refused to swear allegiance to three of the six judges appointed by parliament. Added to this siege was the chairman of the Constitutional Court, Bogdan Savchkovsky, who refused to allow the judges elected by the majority of the current parliament to take office. The conflict worsened when politicians in Poland's ruling coalition on Thursday denounced a proposal by the leader of the main opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, that Poland could begin formal negotiations to leave the European Union as a high-risk pressure tactic to force institutional changes within the bloc. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that the very future of the country's western integration is now up for discussion.
"Jaroslaw Kaczynski has just announced that Poland must begin negotiations on the terms of its exit from the European Union. This is what is at stake in today's bitter struggle in Poland. It's a tough fight and I'm not going to lose it, even if not everyone is on my side," Tusk wrote on Thursday. Kaczynski objected in X and wrote: "Tusk, as usual, lies" and added that "the European Union is necessary, but requires deep reforms", and linked the bloc's current crisis to the former administration of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Tusk himself during his presidency of the European Council. Kaczynski said PiS wants an EU that focuses on lowering energy prices, strengthening security and eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy for ordinary citizens.