Donald Tusk’s address was posted on his social media accounts. The Polish prime minister said that “yesterday we witnessed outrageous events at the building of the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland” and that peace cannot be built on yielding to lawlessness and violence.
Tusk said that for many hours he has been watching what is happening with concern and does not understand what groups of politicians and activists from the Polish PiS party and the “Confederation” are aiming for. According to him, they enjoy the support of an “army of Russian bots on the internet” and received public compliments from the Kremlin’s chief ideologue.
This was reported by ASTRA. At night, Polish President Karol Nawrocki, elected with the support of PiS, entered the Constitutional Tribunal building despite resistance from judges at the entrance, after Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska announced the temporary suspension of Tribunal chairman Bogdan Święczkowski and his deputy Bartłomiej Sochański.
Tusk called what was happening another stage in the “process of destroying the rule of law in Poland” by PiS and Presidents Duda and Nawrocki. He said that the Tribunal in the form imposed by PiS is not a real court, and added that this was the assessment of international institutions, respected Polish lawyers, and public opinion. According to the prime minister, together with the parliamentary majority he proposed resolutions and laws to restore the rule of law, but everything was blocked by the president and PiS.
Tusk also accused the Polish president of failing to swear in the lawfully elected judges, and when after many weeks of waiting they decided to take up their duties, they were attacked. In this situation, he said, the police protected the lawfully elected members of the Tribunal.
PiS governed Poland from 2015 to 2023, and in 2020, after a Constitutional Tribunal ruling, the country effectively introduced an almost total abortion ban. In the parliamentary elections in October 2023, a coalition of three opposition blocs led by Tusk’s liberal Civic Coalition won the majority. The prime minister expressed confidence that the Constitutional Tribunal would begin to work “as it should” and said that he would ensure this as head of the executive branch.
