Riot police deployed around Poland\u2019s constitutional court and President Karol Nawrocki called off an African visit on Friday after the suspension of its chief justice in a battle between the centrist government and the nationalist right.\n<\/p>\n
The government has been trying to force out the court\u2019s judges, who were appointed by the previous right-wing government of the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS).\n<\/p>\n
Dozens of police guarded the entrance to the building as followers of the now opposition PiS gathered for a demonstration over the ousting of court president Bogdan Swieczkowski.\n<\/p>\n
The court\u2019s official X social media account said there had been a \u201ccoup d\u2019etat\u201d.<\/p>\n
Poland\u2019s president, a right-wing independent, called off a flight to Senegal for an official trip so that he could return to Warsaw.<\/p>\n
When the PiS was in power, from 2015 to 2023, the European Union accused Poland\u2019s highest court of being too close to the political power.\n<\/p>\n
The court ruled in favour of Polish legislation over EU law on several occasions.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Donald Tusk had vowed to end the dispute with Brussels after winning an election in 2023. But Nawrocki has blocked his nominations to the court.\n<\/p>\n
The suspension of Swieczkowski was announced by another court judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska. <\/p>\n
Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who is also the attorney general, told journalists he had requested the lifting of the immunity enjoyed by Swieczkowski and his deputy Bartlomiej Sochanski.\n<\/p>\n
PiS supporters outside the court chanted \u201cTusk traitor\u201d, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. Some said prayers while holding Roman Catholic rosaries and religious images.\n<\/p>\n
Tusk justified the action in a comment on the X platform.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cRestoring the rule of law is our duty,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter years of PiS-led lawlessness, this is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and it requires decisive action. There is no other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The constitutional court\u2019s official website was not accessible on Friday evening.\n<\/p>\n
Its X account said there had been a \u201ccoup d\u2019etat\u201d and that Swieczkowski remained in office.\n<\/p>\n
Korwin-Piotrowska could not become interim chief as she had not been sworn in by the president, it added.\n<\/p>\n
AFP\n <\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Riot police deployed around Poland\u2019s constitutional court and President Karol Nawrocki called off an African visit on Friday after the suspension of its chief justice in a battle between the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}