The suspension was announced on the Tribunal's website Friday evening by judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, who said it was needed to restore the rule of law. Police secured the building, with dozens of officers reported at the scene. Nawrocki had been in Senegal for the opening of the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Dakar. "At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland," he wrote on X. "I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning."

Nawrocki met Święczkowski and the court's first chief justice, Zbigniew Kapinski, at the presidential palace before going to the Tribunal. He said he helped the suspended president get inside. He called the move a breach of Poland's constitutional order and asked for an urgent meeting with the heads of parliamentary groups to stabilize the political situation. Crisis talks were scheduled at the palace for 1:00 pm local time, with dozens of police posted outside and supporters of the opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) protesting nearby.

Protesters gathered around the Tribunal in numbers that accounts put anywhere from dozens to hundreds, and some stayed overnight. Some threw objects at officers and tried to breach the court's security fence. Police detained three people. Signs and chants blamed Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government, including "Tusk traitor." PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński addressed the crowd and called on the president to act. Demonstrator Tomasz Zaleski said the government was "trampling on our constitutional rights."

Tusk's government says the suspension is part of repairing a court it considers captured. Święczkowski became head of the Tribunal under the previous PiS administration, which governed from 2015 to 2023. The government accuses him of repeatedly breaking the law and of blocking judges elected by the parliamentary majority from taking up their duties. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek said the court had become "private property" and asked for the immunity of Święczkowski and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, to be lifted. Tusk said "restoring the rule of law is our obligation," adding that the process is difficult, sometimes painful and requires decisive action.

PiS figures describe the same event as an attack on the constitution. Former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki and former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro called it a coup d'état, and Ziobro called it a "blatant, criminal attack on the constitutional order" and urged resistance. The Tribunal's X account used the same phrase.

The fight over the court dates to 2015, when PiS appointed judges to seats that were already filled, producing a tribunal that critics say lacks independence. Judges seated under PiS have frequently ruled in favor of Polish law over EU law, and the dispute has previously led the EU to fine Poland. Tusk's coalition took power in 2023 promising to restore judicial independence. Nawrocki, elected in 2025, has obstructed its efforts to reform the court. Earlier this year he refused to swear in three of six judges nominated by parliament.

US Ambassador to Poland Tom Rose urged all sides to avoid actions that could provoke violence or further escalation. Ewa Marciniak, a political scientist at the University of Warsaw, said the volatility was heightened by the parliamentary elections due in November 2027.