Poland's Constitutional Court president suspended; protesters clash with police in Warsaw

Poland's Constitutional Court was plunged into a fresh institutional crisis on Friday after judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska announced the suspension of court president Bogdan Swieczkowski, declaring the move necessary to "restore the rule of law" and assuming the presidency herself.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the court in Warsaw. Police, acting at the request of Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek and Korwin-Piotrowska, cordoned off the building and detained three people after some demonstrators climbed the court fence and threw objects at officers.

President Karol Nawrocki, who was aboard a flight to Senegal, reversed course and returned to Warsaw. He later appeared among the protesters at the site. "In a moment like this, the president must be in Poland," he wrote on X.

Swieczkowski had served as deputy justice minister under the previous nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government and had blocked judges elected by the current parliamentary majority from taking up their posts. Nawrocki, considered a PiS ally, had earlier refused to swear in three of the six judges nominated by parliament.

Korwin-Piotrowska said she was prepared to meet Nawrocki at the presidential palace to ease tensions. Polish police answer to the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk through the Interior Ministry, not to the president.