Tusk pledges support for Poland's Constitutional Tribunal amid court crisis

what happened

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the Constitutional Tribunal will act in line with the law and independently of the president, according to Reuters. Late on Friday the tribunal said its longest-serving judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, had suspended tribunal president Bogdan Swieczkowski and taken charge of the court.

President Karol Nawrocki, an ally of the previous hard-right government, called the move a forcible takeover of a constitutional body. He turned his plane back from a trip to Senegal and headed to the court in central Warsaw. Riot police have guarded the building since Friday afternoon, while several hundred protesters have demanded Swieczkowski's reinstatement.

The dispute over the tribunal dates back to 2015 and has effectively paralysed it, as the government and the president refuse to recognise each other's appointees.

why it matters

For markets this is mainly a domestic political conflict, but it can affect how investors price institutional risk in Poland, with the zloty and government bonds the most exposed.

market impact

Zloty and Polish bonds: political uncertainty and rule-of-law risks raise the risk premium.

• ▼Zloty (PLN) pressure down — rising political uncertainty and institutional risk in Poland.

tags

instruments