Polish president Karol Nawrocki turned back his plane en route to Senegal on Friday as the country’s top court was thrown into chaos after its president was suspended.
Police and protesters clashed outside the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw after the government suspended its two senior justices and moved to bring criminal charges against them. Reports suggest riot police were deployed on Friday evening as demonstrators supporting the Law and Order (PiS) party, who oppose the government, threw objects at officers.
"At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning," Mr Nawrocki, who is backed by the PiS, said on X.
The tribunal said on its website that the court's president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, had been suspended on Friday.
A long-running political dispute over the Constitutional Tribunal has effectively paralysed the institution.
Earlier this year, Mr Nawrocki, an ally of Poland's former nationalist government of the Law and Justice or PiS party, refused to swear in three of six judges nominated by parliament, while Swieczkowski, who was a deputy justice minister under PiS, declined to allow judges elected by the current parliamentary majority to assume their duties.
Restoring the rule of law is the government's duty, prime minister Donald Tusk said on X later on Friday.
“Restoring the rule of law is our obligation,” prime minister Tusk wrote on X on Friday evening. “After years of lawlessness under PiS this is a difficult process, sometimes painful and it requires decisive action. There is no other way.”
Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek told reporters he has requested the lifting of the immunities of Swieczkowski and his deputy for failing to fulfill their duties by preventing judges from performing their work.
PiS politicians, including leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said Tusk's government was carrying out a coup on the tribunal.
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