The office of Polish President Karol Nawrocki has said it would file criminal complaints against three judges elected by the governing majority over a scuffle with the head of state at the country’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK).
Presidential spokesman Rafał Leśkiewicz said on November 1 that Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, Maciej Berek and Krystian Markiewicz had violated the President’s bodily inviolability. He told Radio Wnet they had no right to touch Nawrocki and would bear criminal responsibility.
The confrontation took place shortly before 1am on October 31, when Nawrocki arrived at the court after cutting short a state visit to Senegal. Hours earlier, judges backed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition had taken over the building with police support.
Korwin-Piotrowska had declared herself acting head of the tribunal and suspended its president, Bogdan Święczkowski. Footage posted by Berek showed Nawrocki pushing past her at the entrance as she and Markiewicz stood in the doorway.
According to Leśkiewicz, the pair blocked the doors although they were not judges, while the President had the right to enter like any citizen. He dismissed Korwin-Piotrowska’s version of events as an attempt to build a legal defence.
Korwin-Piotrowska has claimed that Nawrocki tried to barge through her and her colleagues. She said she might file her own complaint but did not regard it as a priority.
The government has gone further. Justice minister and prosecutor general Waldemar Żurek told broadcaster TVP Info on November 1 that he viewed the President’s entry itself in criminal terms, as a breach of the building’s inviolability.
He added that Nawrocki’s aides had behaved with complete impunity inside and said prosecutors had to draw the consequences.
His deputy, Dariusz Mazur, claimed the President may have committed trespass by entering a closed area after office hours. He conceded the offence is not prosecuted automatically but only at the request of an entitled party.
Under the Polish constitution, a sitting president can be held criminally liable only before the Tribunal of State. Żurek acknowledged as much in April when he ordered criminal proceedings against Nawrocki’s advisers over the same dispute.
The row stems from Nawrocki’s refusal to swear in five of the eight judges elected by Tusk’s majority this year, among them all three named by his office. Tusk’s coalition has refused to recognise the TK since 2023, arguing that some of its members were unlawfully appointed under the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government.
The European Commission has backed the government’s position that parliament was entitled to appoint the new judges.
The court is due to hold a General Assembly on November 3 to adopt its budget, with both camps claiming the right to lead it.
