Constitutional crisis in Poland as PM sends police to storm top court

Poland appears to be in a state of constitutional crisis on Friday after Prime Minister Donald Tusk sent police to install a loyalist to control the nation's constitutional court, in defiance of President Karol Nawrocki and the judicial body.

Video footage showed police entering the Constitutional Tribunal on Friday evening. President Nawrocki was en route to Senegal, but has turned his plane around to address the situation.

"Restoring the rule of law is our duty. After years of PiS-led lawlessness, this is a difficult process, sometimes painful, and it requires decisive action. There is no other way," Tusk posted on X.

Nawrocki issued only a limited comment in response, saying "At such a moment, the President must be in Poland. I'm interrupting my flight to Senegal. I'm returning."

Law and Justice Party Leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski opined that Poland was "becoming a police state."

Polish MEP Grzegorz Braun, a far-right politician, likened Tusk's actions to a coup in 1926 and called for Poland to leave the EU outright.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.