Nawrocki uses security council meeting to blame Tusk for tribunal takeover and sets deadline

Polish President Karol Nawrocki used the televised opening of a National Security Council meeting on 3 November to accuse Prime Minister Donald Tusk, seated at the same table, of an illegal takeover of the Constitutional Tribunal. Nawrocki said that responsibility for every police officer outside the tribunal, for the suspension of its president and vice-president and for what he called unlawful orders lay with "one person present in this room".

He said he expected Tusk to be ready to curb the excesses of his power before Independence Day on 11 November, and that he would use all his prerogatives to stop an attempt to overturn Poland's constitutional order. Since 30 October two groups of judges have issued conflicting orders at the 15-member court, which rules on whether Polish laws comply with the constitution.

Eight judges elected by the current Sejm this year now control the building, while Bogdan Święczkowski, the suspended president, and six other judges have declared the measures taken against him unlawful, the International Commission of Jurists said. Dozens of constitutional complaints and judicial questions have waited more than five years for a ruling, and the next…