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Europe Today: Tusk v Nawrocki: Poland's Constitutional Tribunal crisis explodes
Poland's President Karol Nawrocki entered the Constitutional Tribunal to demand the return of its suspended conservative chief judge, as Donald Tusk's government seated new judges and riot police clashed with protesters. We hear both sides, plus Ukrainians braces for winter and the Ebola crisis.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/11/02/europe-today-tusk-v-nawrocki-polands-constitutional-court-crisis-explodes
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Poland's President Karol Nawrocki entered the Constitutional Tribunal to demand the return of its suspended conservative chief judge, as Donald Tusk's government seated new judges and riot police clashed with protesters. We hear both sides, plus Ukrainians braces for winter and the Ebola crisis.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/11/02/europe-today-tusk-v-nawrocki-polands-constitutional-court-crisis-explodes
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:14Good morning, it's Monday, November the 2nd. You're watching Euronews, and this is Europe Today.
00:21Our top stories. Poland's long-standing political battle over the judiciary has reached a new flashpoint after President Karol Nawrowski
00:31forced his way into the Constitutional Tribunal amid clashes between riot police and anti-government protesters.
00:39Nawrowski and supporters are demanding the reinstatement of a conservative top judge whose suspension is backed by Prime Minister Donald
00:47Tusk's pro-EU government.
00:48Mass demonstrations in Germany that passed largely peacefully turned violent as night fell on Saturday, and rioters faced off against
00:57police in Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg, and Berlin.
01:01The protesters demanded better education and lower living costs. Authorities made arrests and used water cannons to break up the
01:09crowds.
01:09Rioters threw Molotov cocktails and set of fireworks, with police maintaining a visible presence after the streets had emptied on
01:17Sunday.
01:18And China has shown no interest in holding a three-way summit with Russia and the United States on Ukraine.
01:25That's according to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in an interview broadcast last night following Steinmeier's meeting with Chinese President
01:34Xi Jinping in Beijing.
01:36China considers Ukraine a purely European affair, Steinmeier said.
01:40The three-way summit was proposed by Vladimir Putin and had the backing of Donald Trump.
01:46Welcome to the program. I'm Stefan Grober.
01:49Poland is facing a deepening constitutional crisis with the government and the presidency locked in a bitter battle over who
01:57controls the judiciary.
01:59The government under Donald Tusk says it is restoring the rule of law.
02:04President Karol Nawrowski's camp accuses it of trying to seize the courts.
02:08So, who is really undermining Poland's democracy?
02:12And can this confrontation be resolved before it spirals further?
02:17We're going to hear from both sides of the issue.
02:20First, I'm joined by Michal Wawrkiewicz, a member of the European Parliament for the European People's Party, the party of
02:27Donald Tusk.
02:28Good morning and thanks for coming on.
02:31Good morning. Thank you for having me.
02:33So, we've now seen an extraordinary confrontation with newly elected judges entering the tribunal, the president of the court being
02:43challenged and President Karol Nawrowski personally intervening.
02:47Who actually has the legal authority to decide who sits on the tribunal and who runs it?
02:53We are facing the huge constitutional crisis in Poland, in the constitutional court of Poland since 2015 when the Law
03:05and Justice Party started the government and they brutally assaulted the constitutional court.
03:12Since that time, we had a lot of violations and this situation was challenged by all possible courts, also European
03:23courts, European courts of human rights and the court of justice.
03:26And they all confirmed that what has happened in 2015, 2016 and later on, that was the violation.
03:34Now, we are the government of Donald Tusk and the majority in the parliament and the judges who were elected
03:42by the parliament are trying to restore the rule of law in the parliament.
03:47And what we have seen is that on Friday, newly elected judges entered the constitutional court and Judge Anna Korvin
04:01-Piotrowska ordered the suspension of two judges, the president and the vice president of the constitutional court, who were appointed
04:11by the Law and Justice Party.
04:13So, uh, let me, let me ask you this.
04:17The government says it is restoring judicial independence after years of political weaponization under the Law and Justice Party.
04:24But isn't the government now doing exactly what it accused Law and Justice of doing, using political power to reshape
04:31the judiciary?
04:33Definitely not.
04:34Uh, the, the government, the majority in the parliament and the judges elected by the parliament are acting according to
04:43the law.
04:43To the rulings of the European courts, of the court of justice and the European court of human rights, according
04:49to what Venice commission confirmed just two weeks ago, and according to the interim measure, which was issued on the
04:575th of May this year, allowing these judges to enter the constitutional court.
05:02They were blocked by the president and the vice president and that's why, uh, Judge Anna Korvin-Piotrowska decided to
05:11suspend these two judges, president and the vice president of the court.
05:15And, uh, that is what happened on Friday.
05:18And later on, on, in the night, what we have seen was the brutal assault of the president of the
05:25republic who entered, using force, entered the building of the constitutional court, and using the force, uh, almost, uh, damaged
05:35the, uh, judges standing in front of the court.
05:38So, this is what we have seen, that was the brutal assault of the president of the republic on the
05:44independence of the constitutional court.
05:46So, the European commission says the same, the parliament, has the constitutional power to appoint judges to the constitutional tribunal.
05:55Does that settle the argument?
05:57Yes, definitely, the only competent, uh, authority in Poland to appoint, uh, judges of the constitutional court is the parliament,
06:06the lower chamber of the parliament, uh, in Poland.
06:09The president does not have any competences, uh, to appoint judges.
06:15That's why, uh, the only right is on the side of the parliament and the government and the judges who
06:21were elected properly by the parliament.
06:23So, we are facing, uh, the enforcement of law, the restoring of the rule of law and independence of this
06:31most important, uh, constitutional court in Poland.
06:35And what is the concrete way out of this crisis now?
06:38And what would it take to secure some sort of cross-party recognition of the tribunal?
06:44Well, the consistency, uh, of all of the actions in, in, uh, next days in, in the future.
06:50Tomorrow, uh, there is an assembly, general assembly of all judges of the constitutional court, and they will decide upon
06:58the future of the constitutional court.
07:01This is the only competent body in the constitutional court, uh, to decide about the future and, uh, um, of
07:09the constitutional court, of the judges and of the suspended, uh, uh, president and vice president of the court.
07:15If Tusk and Navrotsky refuse to back down, who actually has the power to stop this crisis?
07:23Well, uh, this crisis, as I said, started back in 2015.
07:29And this year, uh, president Navrotsky, who is trying to block all of the restoration of the rule of law,
07:35all of the implementation of the rulings of the European courts, which is the most important because these rulings, uh,
07:44are drawing the, the, the roadmap how to get out of the crisis.
07:49But, uh, president Navrotsky needs and wants to keep the power of his political camp over the constitutional court.
07:58So, this is the, the fault of, uh, president Navrotsky and his camp, that they don't want to restore the
08:04rule of law.
08:05They want to keep the political power over the constitutional court.
08:09That was the politically manipulated, uh, theater of puppets for 10 years, and they want to keep it.
08:17Um, this is quite an extraordinary crisis.
08:20I can't remember, uh, anything like it in, in any other EU country.
08:24Are you worried that this story sort of harms the international, the European reputation of, of Poland?
08:32Our European friends, uh, deeply understand the situation in Poland because they are facing this situation for many years.
08:42And this situation, and also in other parts of the judiciary, was discussed, debated in the parliament, in other institutions
08:50of the European Union many times.
08:52So, I, I truly believe that they understand the situation and they understand that the government of Donald Tusk is
08:59trying to restore, rebuild, uh, the rule of law, uh, in Poland.
09:05And we will be fully consistent in that way.
09:08And I believe we will do that.
09:11You are right that this is unprecedented situation, not only in Poland, but in the whole Europe.
09:16Never happened before, but we are where we are.
09:20And we need to act on the battlefield where we are.
09:24All right.
09:25Michal Wawrekiewicz, member of the European People's Party in the European Parliament.
09:29Thank you very much.
09:30Now, I want to hear from the other side of the issue.
09:34And to do this, Polish Secretary of State and advisor to President Nawrowski, Marcin Pszedacz, joins us now.
09:40Good morning to you.
09:42Good morning.
09:43Very good morning.
09:44Hello, sir.
09:44So, the government says it is trying to restore the tribunal's independence after years of political interference.
09:51President Nawrowski says the government is trying to take control of the court.
09:55Which side is defending the constitution?
09:58Well, um, definitely restoring any kind of rule of law, uh, which, uh, the government claims, uh, should not be
10:06done by the 3,000 riot police entering the premises of the constitutional tribunal.
10:13And that is what happened, uh, in the evening of, uh, of, uh, Friday when, uh, people in Poland were,
10:20uh, heading towards their families, uh, out of Warsaw for the All Saints Day.
10:25It was a very quiet in, uh, in the capital of Poland, uh, uh, in the capital of Poland, uh,
10:30uh, evening.
10:30The president was on his way to Senegal.
10:32And suddenly we learned, uh, that, uh, Prime Minister Tusk, uh, sent 3,000 riot police troops, uh, in order
10:41to, as they say, clean the constitutional tribunal without any legal basis for that.
10:49Of course, there is a crisis, of course, there is a dispute over that, uh, but, uh, even the lawyers
10:57who are very close to the liberal government says that there is absolutely no legal basis for such a behavior
11:03of the, of the government.
11:05What's more, the president of the Supreme Court and the president of the National Administrative Court, so the two most
11:12important judges in Poland, they also said publicly that there is absolutely no legitimate basis for such a behavior of
11:20the government.
11:21So, that's why we are in such a crisis now in Poland.
11:24Sir, I mean, we all see, saw the scenes, uh, where President Nawarovsky entered the building, the tribunal building.
11:32Critics described the visit as a PR stunt to exert pressure on the court.
11:37Why did the president decide to intervene in person and what exactly was he trying to achieve?
11:44Well, uh, according to the Polish, uh, constitution, a president of the Republic of Poland is the, is the guard
11:50of the constitution.
11:51So, whenever he sees that the constitution is violated, he is obliged to, uh, react.
11:58But before going to the tribunal, uh, he went to his own palace, invited the president of the Supreme Court
12:05in order to learn his perspective, in order to learn an expertise on that.
12:10What's going on and how should he treat that?
12:13President is, uh, head of state, uh, with a very strong, strong, uh, uh, uh, uh, he's a legitimized leader,
12:21I mean, with a very strong mandate, uh, uh, more than 10, 10 million people voted directly for him.
12:26But he wanted to learn the perspective of the, of, of, of the, the legal perspective.
12:31After learning, uh, that's, uh, it's all illegal, he went there in order to first learn, uh, on the basis
12:39what's going on there.
12:39The second, to help the legitimate, uh, president and, uh, deputy president of the tribunal enter the, the, the building
12:47in order to restore the order.
12:50Unfortunately, he was blocked by the, uh, uh, political, those appointees of Prime Minister Tusk, uh, uh, the, the, who
12:58are claiming that there are judges.
12:59But as Prime Minister Tusk publicly said, these are his judges.
13:05So the, uh, Prime Minister Tusk says, these are my judges.
13:08We believe that there shouldn't be any my, his, or their judges.
13:13There should be legitimate legal judges, not, uh, Tusk's judges.
13:17Okay, sir.
13:18Are President Nowrowski and Prime Minister Tusk now effectively fighting a constitutional war?
13:24Well, as I said, there is a constitutional crisis, definitely.
13:29And the people, uh, of Poland, uh, gathered in front of the tribunal protesting against, uh, uh, that kind of
13:35situation.
13:36Mostly, uh, protesting, of course, against, uh, uh, entrance of, of, of police.
13:41They do, uh, they, there are evidence that there is a, um, a crisis.
13:45What President Nowrowski said and, and, and did after that, he invited all the political parties to the palace in
13:52order to talk.
13:53Because we believe that in democracy, it is the dialogue which may solve the, the crisis.
13:59The problem is that Prime Minister Tusk, uh, uh, was not, uh, um, uh, eager to, uh, to really talk.
14:07Uh, he just, uh, issued, uh, his statement, uh, uh, through the public television, uh, saying that he will not
14:14step back from that.
14:15Uh, and he will only keep, uh, the police, uh, um, there in the constitutional tribunal.
14:21So all the other parties are very much eager to talk and to consult.
14:25And then there is a one main message coming from all the parties.
14:29It cannot be like this.
14:30There is a need for any kind of restart of a situation.
14:34Um, so we do believe that based on that, we will build something, uh, something positive.
14:39All right.
14:39Polish Secretary of State and Presidential Advisor Marcin Przedasz.
14:43Thank you very much this morning.
14:46Almost 5,000 dead.
14:48More than 10,000 infected.
14:50The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is escalating.
14:54Yet the international response is struggling to keep pace.
14:58The Elders, a group of former world leaders founded by Nelson Mandela, are demanding urgent action.
15:05Earlier, I spoke to one of their most influential personalities, former Irish president Mary Robinson.
15:10And I started by asking her whether we're witnessing a global health emergency that the world is simply choosing to
15:17ignore.
15:18Here's what she said.
15:19It's really tragic what's happening because this is the fastest moving Ebola.
15:2410,000 cases and about 50% mortality, which means more than 5,000 people have died.
15:32But worse than that, they're not able to follow up on the contacts because of the situation in the Democratic
15:39Republic of Congo.
15:40Of course, I know it well from my time as mediator for the Great Lakes in Africa, for the UN.
15:45And there is an urgent need for resources to help with contacts, to help the health workers, the frontline health
15:53workers, and to help with humanitarian access, etc.
15:56It has now spread.
15:59There are some cases also in Kenya, in Uganda, in Nigeria, and France.
16:04So it is very dangerous because of the fact that they are not able to trace the contacts, much less
16:12than in the Ebola in 2014, for example.
16:15And this is very worrying.
16:17So the Elders are calling for more international action.
16:21What exactly are you demanding?
16:23Is it more money, more medical personnel, or a totally different international approach to this crisis?
16:30We're so worried that we actually wrote an open letter to the G20 because 3 billion euros was pledged, but
16:40only a billion is being released.
16:43And, of course, the G20 includes members of the EU.
16:47So we ask for the release of the funds that were pledged and are needed really urgently.
16:52And this should include specific funds to protect, pay, and support health workers and community leaders for village centres' responses
17:01to the frontline and funds for humanitarian early recovery needs.
17:06It also calls for guaranteed fair access to approved vaccines and treatment for priority groups.
17:12First, first, to counter mutation risks, because there is a mutation risk, apparently, particularly in the DRC, and address the
17:21security dimension of the crisis by pressurising armed groups in the DRC and neighbouring countries with influence to allow safe
17:29access for health and humanitarian workers.
17:32They're the main calls that we make in that open letter.
17:36It was really very worrying, as I said, to see how quickly this is spreading, how high the mortality rate
17:44is, and only a billion of the three billion pledged has actually been released to address it.
17:52So you've been a leading international voice for human rights and international global justice.
17:59This is kind of a tough question.
18:02Is the impression right that the international community treats African lives as less valuable than European and American lives?
18:11I'm afraid it is a tough question, but you have to feel that, you know, the lives of those who
18:18are invisible to us, they're poor, they live in remote areas that are under difficulty of militias and armed groups,
18:26and we don't care enough.
18:28We don't care enough.
18:29That's true.
18:30And are Western governments guilty of complacency here, or are they simply overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crisis and
18:39shrinking aid budgets?
18:42I think there are a number of factors that distract governments, but the point we're making is this is dangerous.
18:49If you have a highly communicable disease and you're not able to trace the contacts because you don't have the
18:56resources to do it, it will spread further.
18:59And this could be really serious, particularly for African countries, but then it will spread to Europe.
19:09Thank you very much.