The prime minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, justified this Saturday the intervention carried out on Friday in the Constitutional Court, which he considers essential in the face of the "destruction of the rule of law" that he blames on the opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) and "Russian bots".
"The attack against the court and its judges is one more step in the process of destruction of the rule of law in Poland at the hands of the Law and Justice party and of the presidents (Andrzej) Duda and (Karol) Nawrocki," Tusk stated in a message to the nation broadcast this Saturday night.
As he explained, after several weeks of waiting, the magistrates legally appointed by Parliament, but who had not been sworn in by President Nawrocki due to his refusal, "decided to assume their functions and were attacked". Faced with this situation, he applauded the actions of the Police, which in his view responded in a "calm but firm way to all aggressions".
"The path to peace cannot be to surrender to lawlessness and violence. A democratic state must be strong and capable of administering justice," he emphasized, alluding to the gathering of protesters outside the headquarters of the high court, a mobilization that Tusk attributes to PiS.
The prime minister has lashed out in particular against the incursion on Friday night by the Polish president, close to PiS, Karol Nawrocki, into the Constitutional building and the subsequent scuffle with Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, aligned with Tusk and who has proclaimed herself president of the court.
"The rule of law differs from the law of the jungle in that muscle and bad manners do not decide who is right. In a rule of law, a judge, even a small woman, does not bow to an aggressive brute," he claimed. He also stressed that a political leader, "not even the president of a country, "cannot enter a court and give orders or intimidate judges". "No one has any doubt that the court in its form imposed by PiS was not a real court," he concluded.
Pro-Russian strategy and "army of bots"
Tusk has denounced that "for years there have been organizations and politicians in Poland who want to destroy democracy and the rule of law". In his view, "it is not a coincidence that they have the support of pro-Russian forces from all over the world and today, in this conflict, they have the support of an army of Russian bots on the internet".
"They have even publicly received praise from the Kremlin’s chief ideologue," the prime minister has assured. "It is not for me today to judge their motives, whether greed, stupidity, or treason. In the end the result is the same," he added.
To illustrate the situation, Tusk resorted to a metaphor in which a thief steals the purse from an elderly person, but "when he is detained, he begins to shout that violence is being used against him". "They want the thief and the victim to share the contents of the purse equally," he warned.
In the final part of his message, Trusk expressed his confidence that the Constitutional Tribunal will recover and "will begin to function as it should, also independently of me". "Poland is strong, democratic and determined. It has not died and it is not going to die," he concluded.
Blocked appointments and clash at the top of the court
The Donald Tusk government has promoted in recent months the appointment of up to six new judges to the Constitutional Tribunal, although Nawrocki has only agreed to swear in two of them.
The crisis finally erupted on Friday, when one of the court’s magistrates, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, decided to unilaterally suspend for one month the president of the court, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and his deputy, Bartlomiej Sochanski, at a time when the headquarters of the Constitutional Court was surrounded by police officers under orders from the Tusk Government.