Polish President Returns Home After Police Enter Constitutional Tribunal, Court Chief Suspended

Polish President Karol Nawrocki turned his plane back to Warsaw on Friday while flying to Senegal, after police entered the Constitutional Tribunal's premises and the tribunal said its president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, had been suspended. Police said officers went in after incidents outside the court, including dangerous objects thrown at them, and that three people were detained after some protesters breached the fence. Dozens of protesters gathered. Nawrocki wrote on X that the president must be in Poland at such a moment. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek said he had asked for the immunity of Swieczkowski and his deputy to be lifted for blocking judges from working. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said restoring the rule of law was the government's duty after years of lawlessness under Law and Justice (PiS). The court's website named Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska interim president. A long dispute has paralyzed the court: Swieczkowski refused to let judges chosen by the current parliamentary majority take up duties, and Nawrocki declined to swear in three of six judges parliament nominated.

Left-leaning NBC News frames the story around the court's paralysis, leading with the president's U-turn and the police statement, then explaining Nawrocki's refusal to swear in judges and Swieczkowski's blocking of others. It does not mention Tusk's statement or protesters' slogans. Right-leaning Fox News and the Washington Examiner also lead with the U-turn, but their headlines use the word coup. Fox describes protesters praying and carrying anti-Tusk posters, while the Examiner stresses that Nawrocki's allies call the move a coup, that Tusk took credit for it, and that barriers surrounded the court. Both sides report the police statement and Nawrocki's post. Al Jazeera and The Hindu largely overlap with these, though Al Jazeera adds Zurek's immunity request.