Poland’s Constitutional Court judges are due to hold a general assembly on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. The official agenda is the court’s 2027 budget, but the meeting is taking place amid a deepening conflict between Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centre-left government and President Karol Nawrocki, who is aligned with the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS).

Since Tusk’s government took office in 2023, parliament has nominated eight judges to fill vacancies on the 15-member court. Nawrocki has sworn in three of them and declined to swear in the other five. The five have taken their oaths before the speaker of parliament, but court president Bogdan Święczkowski has not allowed them into the building. In May, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that they should be permitted to work.

The dispute intensified on Friday, when the court’s website announced that Święczkowski and his deputy had been replaced, with judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska appointed to lead the court on an interim basis. Korwin-Piotrowska is among the five judges Nawrocki has not sworn in. The president then cut short a planned trip to Senegal. Video showing him entering the court and pushing Korwin-Piotrowska aside circulated widely, according to the report.

Korwin-Piotrowska has convened Tuesday’s assembly, which can nominate the court president and deputy and appoint a commission to consider whether a judge’s immunity should be lifted. Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Jurek has requested the removal of immunity for Święczkowski and his deputy, seeking to hold them accountable for excluding the five judges.

It remains uncertain whether the assembly will take place or have enough members to make decisions. Judges associated with PiS are expected to stay away. The report also notes concern that tensions could rise around Poland’s November 11 national holiday, when right-wing and far-right groups traditionally hold an Independence March in Warsaw. Political scientist Antoni Dudek told PAP that marchers might depart from their usual route and head towards the Constitutional Court and government offices, and said clashes were possible.

Sources: Handelsblatt.