Polish President Turns Back From Senegal Flight After Top Court Chief Is Suspended

Update: Two ambassadors resign in protest

Updated 13:28 UTC, Oct. 31, 2026. The tribunal crisis has spread to Poland's diplomatic service. Jakub Kumoch, Poland's ambassador to China, announced his resignation on Friday, saying events at home had made it impossible for him to stay in the post. "Given the developments taking place in the country, I have concluded that it is no longer possible for me to continue serving as the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland. As of today, I have submitted my resignation and a request to be recalled from my post," Kumoch wrote on X, in a post reported by the Polish outlet Interia.

Pawel Soloch, Poland's ambassador to Romania, also resigned, saying he saw no possibility of continuing in the role after what he called an attempt to unlawfully take over the Constitutional Tribunal. Soloch said he had informed President Karol Nawrocki and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski of his decision.

Sikorski answered Kumoch on X, calling the end of the mission unprofessional and saying the departing ambassador no longer represented Poland. Marcin Przydacz, who heads the International Policy Bureau at the president's office, backed Kumoch's decision and described it as a responsible move in defence of the country's democracy and international standing.

Both men previously held senior posts in the administration of former President Andrzej Duda, who is associated with the Law and Justice party.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki turned back his plane on Friday while flying to Senegal and returned to Poland after the president of the Constitutional Tribunal, Bogdan Swieczkowski, was suspended. The move opened a new and open clash between the president and Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government over who controls the country's top court.

"At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning," Nawrocki said on X.

Updated overnight: The president enters the tribunal

President Karol Nawrocki went to the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday and pushed through a police cordon to enter the building, in a sharp escalation of the fight over the court. Video showed the president tussling with security personnel and other judges as he made his way inside. He remained in the building for several hours. His office said he enabled the tribunal deputy president, Bartlomiej Sochanski, to enter the building as well. Nawrocki and his chief of staff, Zbigniew Bogucki, left before 5 a.m., Judge Maciej Taborowski told the Polish Press Agency, while judges remained inside.

In a statement read outside the court at 5 a.m. by presidential minister Pawel Szefernaker, Nawrocki said: "Tonight there was a violation of the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland and a forcible takeover of a constitutional body of the state." He called for the security forces sent by the government to leave the tribunal premises. Citing a threat to internal security, he convened urgent consultations with representatives of the parliamentary parties for Saturday, saying the aim was to stabilize the political situation and restore constitutional order.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski wrote on X that police outside the tribunal had acted professionally and calmly for many hours and were not escalating the situation. Police said officers had not entered the building, and that three people were arrested while trying to enter the complex.

The suspension

The Constitutional Tribunal said its longest serving judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, had suspended Swieczkowski, an appointee of the former Law and Justice government, and was now in charge of the court. A notice posted on the tribunal website said Swieczkowski and the deputy president, Bartlomiej Sochanski, had been suspended from their duties for one month. Korwin-Piotrowska also called a general assembly of the court's judges for November 3.

The tribunal leadership rejected the suspensions. It said the court website had been taken over unlawfully and described the actions as an attempt at a coup. Swieczkowski does not recognise the suspension order against him.

Protest and police outside the court

Protesters gathered outside the tribunal in Warsaw late on Friday amid a heavy police presence. Reuters reported that hundreds gathered, while the Associated Press reported that dozens rallied, and the two accounts give different sizes for the crowd. Police reported detaining three people after part of the crowd forced through the court fencing and hurled objects at officers.

Warsaw police said officers entered the tribunal premises after dangerous objects were thrown at them. Police said they were on the grounds, not inside the building, and were restoring public order.

Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Zurek told reporters he had filed five requests to strip judicial immunity, four concerning Swieczkowski and one concerning Sochanski.

Tusk defended the course his government has taken. "Restoring the rule of law is our obligation," he wrote on X. "This process is difficult, at times even painful, and requires decisive action. There is no other way."

A dispute that dates to 2015

The fight is part of a long running conflict that has effectively paralysed the tribunal, with the pro-European government and the nationalist president refusing to recognise appointees put forward by the other side. The dispute dates to 2015, when the nationalist Law and Justice party sought to appoint judges to seats that critics said were already filled.

After Tusk's coalition took office in 2023, it pledged to restore the rule of law and reform the court. Nawrocki, elected president in 2025, has acted to block those efforts. Earlier this year he refused to swear in judges nominated by parliament, while Swieczkowski, a former deputy justice minister under Law and Justice, declined to seat judges elected by the current parliamentary majority.