Moscow has seized upon a high-stakes standoff surrounding Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, amplifying domestic and international right-wing accusations that Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist administration has carried out a coup d’état.
The political escalation unfolded late Friday when Poland’s centrist government deployed riot police to seal off the Constitutional Tribunal building. The intervention followed a gathering of right-wing protesters outside the facility who were demonstrating against the suspension of the court’s chief justice, Bogdan Swieczkowski, a prominent ally of the country’s former governing party, Law and Justice.
Domestic critics swiftly condemned the government’s actions, with allies of the suspended chief justice—who briefly maintained control over the tribunal’s social media accounts over the weekend—accusing their political rivals of committing the crime of a putsch.
The domestic outcry quickly drew opportunistic engagement from Moscow. Dmitri Medvedev, a former Russian president who currently serves as vice chairman of the Kremlin’s security council and remains a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin, publicly weighed in on Sunday. Medvedev declared on social media that a constitutional coup was underway in Poland.
Prime Minister Tusk has long been a primary target of hostility from Moscow due to his government’s steadfast support for Ukraine amid its ongoing conflict with Russia. Kremlin-friendly European politicians, including Marine Le Pen of France, Nigel Farage of Britain, and Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, have similarly echoed the narrative of a putsch in Warsaw.
The direct confrontation over the Constitutional Tribunal represents the latest flashpoint in a bitter, decade-long political battle for control over Poland’s judicial institutions.
