A Coup in Progress in Poland? Police Enter the Constitutional Tribunal! President Outraged, PM Tusk Accused of Power Grab!

The government of Polish Prime Minister Tusk sent police and special forces to occupy the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw, attempting to forcibly install new judges and suspend the original Chief Justice, which prompted President Nawrocki to cut short his visit and return home to protest. Conservatives have accused this move of being a coup, and citizens have taken to the streets to protest. This constitutional crisis has impacted Poland's judicial independence, EU policy, and future political trajectory.

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A very serious constitutional crisis has occurred in Poland over the past two days. On October 30, Polish police appeared at the Constitutional Tribunal in the capital, Warsaw. A group of newly appointed judges entered the court, while reports emerged that the original Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice were prevented from entering. Subsequently, one of the new judges took an oath to suspend the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice from their duties for one month. This incident immediately triggered a political storm. Polish President Nawrocki even cut short his visit to Africa, returned to Poland urgently, and personally went to the Constitutional Tribunal late at night. What exactly happened?

Let's look at the background first. Since current Polish Prime Minister Tusk took office in 2023, he has been wanting to overturn the judicial reforms made by the previous conservative government. Tusk believes that the previous government controlled the Constitutional Tribunal and undermined judicial independence, so he now wants to restore the rule of law. But the question is, to restore the rule of law, must you first destroy it? This year, the Polish parliament elected new Constitutional Tribunal judges, but President Nawrocki refused to preside over the swearing-in ceremony for five of them. These five judges then held their swearing-in ceremony in parliament instead, which is unconstitutional. If the President does not accept the oath, these people cannot serve as judges.

Instead of swearing in at parliament. Think about it, if Fu Kun-chi and Han Kuo-yu were to run off on their own to sign a peace agreement with China, regardless of what the Taiwan government and public opinion say, and ignoring public opinion. Tusk's party now only has 30% support. Here I want to add something about the Polish system. The Polish political system is not a pure presidential system, nor is it a parliamentary system; it is a mixed system. The President is directly elected, the Prime Minister is usually the leader of the parliamentary majority party, and the Cabinet is controlled by the Prime Minister. The President is the Commander-in-Chief and has veto power over bills passed by parliament.

If a bill is vetoed, it must return to parliament for another vote, and it must receive a 60% majority to become law. Therefore, the President's power is quite significant. However, returning to the Constitutional Tribunal, the original Chief Justice believed that these people had not completed the legal procedures, so he did not recognize their status as judges. The two sides remained deadlocked. Then, on October 30, one of the new judges, whose status was still legally disputed, unexpectedly announced that he was taking over the Constitutional Tribunal and suspending the original Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice. This created a very serious legal issue: does a person whose own qualifications as a judge are in dispute have the authority to remove the leaders of the Constitutional Tribunal?

More notably, even legal scholars who used to frequently criticize Poland's conservative government have started questioning whether there is any legal basis for this suspension decision. Now justice has the law, meaning the Polish conservatives, who accuse the Tusk government of attempting to seize the Constitutional Tribunal and even describe the matter as a coup. However, I believe that because Tusk's polling numbers are currently very low and Poland's parliamentary elections will take place next year, Tusk is very likely to lose the position of Prime Minister, so he feels compelled to make a final push. Knowing that behind Tusk stands the EU bureaucratic system, which is extremely dissatisfied with the policies of the Polish conservatives—such as cooperating with the United States on energy issues, pursuing independent defense, and refusing to allow the illegal immigrants heavily pushed by the EU to enter—this is clearly a conflict between the globalist left wing of the EU bureaucracy and the Polish conservatives and nationalists.

The job of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal is to review whether government actions and laws enacted by parliament are unconstitutional; its very purpose is to limit government power. Therefore, regardless of whether the ruling party today is left-wing, liberal, or conservative, nobody can simply bypass legal procedures just because they dislike a ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal.

Tusk has constantly claimed that he is restoring the rule of law in Poland, but the primary question raised by the conservatives is: If you want to restore the rule of law, must every single action you take yourself also have a clear legal basis? You don't have one, do you? Just because Ursula von der Leyen dislikes Poland's Constitutional Tribunal or dislikes President Nawrocki, it doesn't give Tusk the right to stage a coup in Poland; you cannot simply use any means to rectify the law just because you believe the previous administration did something wrong. It is not up to whoever is in power to decide how the law should be interpreted. How this crisis will develop moving forward remains to be seen. The crisis currently facing Poland is not merely a political conflict between Prime Minister Tusk and President Nawrocki; it involves Poland's constitution, judicial independence, and the question of who should uphold the boundaries of governmental power.

Today I have invited a special guest who participated in yesterday's protest outside the Constitutional Tribunal. He is a journalist and also the co-founder of our Patriots' Alliance, Philip Stachinski. Philip, welcome to our program. Alrighty, uh, Philip, thank you so much for agreeing to take part in my show. You've been up all night, as far as I know, right? That's correct. And thank you for having me, Stan. It's always great pleasure to speak with you.

Yeah, with fellow patriots, Philip, I have a question. What is going on right now in Warsaw with the Constitutional Tribunal? There are thousands of protesters because Donald Tusk and his government just tried to took over full control by force through force to take over the court, and so far they failed because President Navraski, when he was informed during his mid-flight to Senegal about the current situation in Poland, he turned around and came back asap to Warsaw, and drove just right back to the constitutional court. Yes, to block this process.

Why did Prime Minister do it right now? Because the issue with the constitutional tribunal it has been on the news for quite a while, starting in 2015, and there are different accusations, both from the current ruling party, the Civic Platform, right, and the Citizen Platform. The question is why now and why via such a brutal way of taking control of the constitutional tribunal? Well, Stan. First of all, we need to understand that yes, the dispute regarding the constitutional court is on since 2015, and this is true.

But the thing is, is the first time when someone decided to use police and special forces to take control over the tribunal. So that's the main difference. This is something new and never happened in Poland since the communist martial law of 1981. So it gives some very very dark flashbacks to the Polish people, and and why now? Well, because Donald Tusk is very perfidious person, you know.

So he knew that President Nawrocki will be abroad at the time, and probably will have no time to react for such an act. So this is the first thing, and the second is the nature of Donald Tusk and his coalition is very authoritarian in its nature. So Donald Tusk, as long as he has no full control over all of the independent institutions, he's not content about the state of the country.

He needs to have full control over all constitutional bodies, all the courts, all the media, and so on. And let me remind to our audience or people who for whom this topic is new that Donald Tusk already in 2023 he started his governing with ordering an illegal right on the Polish television against all laws, he just sent police and took the public media by force, just as he tried with the constitutional court.

Could you explain how the whole situation and the whole system works in Poland? This time, it is about the five justices that were not sworn in by President Nawrotzki, and then to try to circumvent the current Polish legislation and swear them in as prime minister. So they did that in the parliament. Could you just explain the whole situation? How did it work? What are the main points of confrontation between the government of Donald Tusk and the president, and also the former president of the constitutional court?

Well, so basically, just as you said, the judges they needs to be sworn in and accepted by the president of Republic of Poland. And this time they were not accepted by President Navrotsky. He had several questions, and there were some errors within the procedure of swearing in of these judges.

But and that's why Tusk is so frustrated because without these judges, he has no majority of sympathetic judges at the court, and the court is like a supreme court in the United States. So basically, every bill, every law could be blocked by the constitutional court in Poland, so without further discussion, he just decided to take it by force.

Well, this is very worrying, and I know that the Law and Justice Party politicians are accusing Prime Minister of PutaTa, he is trying to take power by force. Are there any political reasons behind it? Yeah, yes, Stan, but you know, framing is very important here because these are not accusations anymore when someone is using.Special forces and police to take constitutional bodies by force. It is indeed cuerta. It's not. It's not. It's. These are not accusations anymore. In fact, they are trying to turn Poland into an authoritarian state because there is no any other explanation and I think it's very important to name it by its name.

So, what is the political reasoning behind it? I know that Prime Minister is being very pro European Union and pro institutions of the European Union. Is it related to President Navrotsky being more supportive of Polish sovereignty and the relationships with EU, or is it something different? Well, the vast majority of Polish people, including President Navrotsky, are pro EU. The thing and the only difference between Tusk and his faction and the right in Poland is that one side wants EU as a super country, a federation of countries without sovereign nations within the union, and the other side, the right, wants the union of independent states of independent countries with his independent laws and so on.

It's just the liberal side who tried to portray the right as people who wants to tear apart the union, which is not true. I say this is what Tusk said yesterday, or the day before yesterday, that Nawrotzki and the Law and Justice Party are trying to dismantle EU and leave the European Union. What they want to do is to reform of European Union. Today, no doubt, there is huge need to reform the union, we can see multiply different reasons for that. Starting with migration, right? This is the most obvious. Ending with the fiscal politics, and what's more, their handler.

So, Berlin and Brussels. My assumption is that Donald Tusk's mission in Poland right now is to introduce euro currency to Poland and to break the whole resistance against this idea during his term. This is his main mission right now from Berlin and Brussels because the eurozone is in very bad situation right now. Germany is in a recession, and Polish people, majority of Polish people, including the liberals, they don't want. Most of us do not want to enter the eurozone. We want to stay with Polish zloty.

Yeah, this would be a disaster. Exactly. But once Polish deficit is growing in such crazy temper right now, you know, because they started when they were taking power in 2023. Our deficit was about like 20 billion, 20 billions losses, something like this, and today is 170 in 3 years. It's insane. So once Poland will be at break of collapsing when it comes to the public budget, public money, and the fiscal situation, then they can introduce euro as the only alternative to the total collapse of the Polish currency system.

Thousands of people took to the streets yesterday, and they are still protesting right now. The head of the Law and Justice Party, Jarosław Kaczyński, is also there. The former Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, was also seen on the streets yesterday. There are many conservative politicians. When you were there and you talked to the people, what do they say? What are their opinions on the streets right now?

First of all, they want to turn down the government, and they want to do it as quickly as soon as it's possible, before the end of their term, which will be technically in one year, but now most of them want to see election much earlier, and most of the people do not see any reasonable and do not see any sense in the current situation to be on and to go over like this anymore because it's completely unoperational, and we need to remember that Poland has a border with Russia. That there are act of Russian sabotage on already on Polish soil and drone incursion in Polish airspace all the time. And on top of this, they destabilize Polish domestic situation on the ground. Polish government de facto hand in hand with Putin's Russia with Lukashenko's regime, destabilizing Poland. So people want them to go. And even before that, in every single poll.In every single survey, the vast majority were pro-peace, pro-Konfederacja, pro-Rozwij Plus, and in favor of all the different right-wing, center-right, and nationalist factions. I’m pretty sure that in the first survey after Tusk started this latest crisis, their support will skyrocket.

What is the international reaction to these events? I can see huge support from the international community, especially from America, but also from Italy, France, Great Britain, and farther away, from places like Australia. So far, it has mostly been at the commentary level, from different public figures, but there are also a lot of regular, everyday internet users saying, “I stand with Poland.” We can see that it’s very similar to the situation in our country, when the left tried to take over our constitutional institutions, and so on. We can see signs of solidarity around the world, that’s for sure. The American ambassador to Poland, Thomas Rose, has already tweeted that the Americans are on Poland’s side, that they support Poland, and that they do not support any kind of aggressive, forcible methods for settling this dispute over the court. That’s a good sign for the near future development of the whole situation.

Final question: Could you give me your prognosis, your prediction for how the situation will develop? What will Prime Minister Tusk do, and what will President Nawrocki do? How will the situation with the Constitutional Tribunal develop?

It’s always hard to tell the future, with the crystal ball right in front of you, but I’ll try my best. First of all, as I said, the Polish right will win the elections next year. President Nawrocki beats all of his rivals in the public trust surveys, by about 50 percentage points, and after this, I think it will probably be around 60%. I think the right, under President Nawrocki’s leadership, can really take on and defeat Tusk and his coalition. That’s for sure.

Will they be ready, and is it possible to do it before the end of the term? That’s harder to predict, but the momentum and the emotions of the crowd suggest that it’s possible.

We also need to remember that there will be a huge event on November 11: the Independence March, on Polish Independence Day. It all started with Donald Tusk’s first and second governments. In 2011, the first Independence March was organized in Warsaw. The Independence March, a march of patriots, is an annual event when people travel to Warsaw from all over Poland—from towns, cities, and rural areas—to march with their flags, show their love for Poland, and usually express their anger at the government, especially Tusk and the liberals.

Last time, I think the march gathered about 300,000 people in Warsaw. I’m telling you, Stan, that this year there will be about one million people in Warsaw. That’s for sure. For my Taiwanese viewers, I think it’s important to say this, because they watch a lot of liberal media, CNN, and MSNBC: the Independence March is not a march of far-right nationalists, fascists, or whatever. It’s a march of people who love Poland and deeply love Poland.

Yes, that’s true. Listen, guys, our Taiwanese friends: even I don’t consider myself a nationalist. Since 2011, whenever I’m in Poland, in Warsaw, I always attend the march to show my attachment to my country. I’ve never seen any Nazis there, that’s for sure. Sometimes I see people with strollers and their kids. Of course, there are always some people acting in bad faith, hunting for something controversial and for some fascists, but usually it’s just impossible to find that. Otherwise, they have to stage some kind of spectacle to find one.

Thank you, Philip. Thank you, and all eyes on Poland now. All eyes on Poland. Pray for Poland. Okay, we will win. Justice will prevail. Thank you.