Ed Paluch

🇵🇱🇪🇺 Poland’s Constitutional Crisis: Before You Believe The Coup Narrative, Understand Who Changed The Rules I’m seeing people around the world sharing dramatic accusations about a coup in Poland. Most of them have absolutely no idea how this crisis started. So here’s what you need to understand. Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal is supposed to protect the Constitution. Think of it as a court that decides whether the government and parliament are acting within constitutional limits. It is not supposed to be an instrument of whichever political party happens to hold power. The trouble began in 2015, during a dispute over judicial appointments. The outgoing government made controversial appointments, but after PiS came to power, it rejected appointments that the Tribunal subsequently ruled were lawful and installed its own judges. The conflict expanded into years of battles over judicial independence, court appointments, and the rule of law. In 2023, Polish voters elected a new parliamentary majority, bringing Donald Tusk’s coalition into government. But changing the government did not automatically undo the institutional changes made under PiS. That’s the part people need to understand. Imagine a political party losing an election but leaving behind appointees who can obstruct the new government’s attempts to restore institutions. Now imagine the resulting confrontation being presented to the world as proof that the new government is overthrowing democracy. This is why the history matters. In 2026, President Karol Nawrocki refused to swear in several judges elected by parliament. Constitutional Tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski also refused to allow newly elected judges to take up their duties. On October 30, Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska announced the suspension of Święczkowski and his deputy. The court’s rival leadership rejected her authority. Nawrocki returned to Warsaw, PiS politicians accused Tusk of staging a coup, protesters gathered, and police were deployed. But an accusation of a coup is not proof of a coup. Tusk’s government argues that it is restoring constitutional order after years of unlawful interference with the judiciary. Nawrocki and PiS argue that the suspension itself violates constitutional order. The legality of these actions must be determined through the law, not by whichever politician shouts the loudest. And here’s the bigger question. When politicians claim to defend law and order, do they mean laws that apply equally to everyone, including themselves? Or do they mean protecting their own people and their own control over institutions? That’s the contradiction at the heart of this crisis. I grew up in communist Poland. I remember what political control over institutions looked like. That’s why I take the independence of courts seriously, regardless of which party is in government. Poland doesn’t belong to PiS. It doesn’t belong to Tusk. It doesn’t belong to Nawrocki. It belongs to its people! It belongs to the Polish people. And before anyone outside Poland shares another sensational post about a supposed coup, they should understand the decade of political and constitutional conflict that brought the country to this point. Law and order must mean the rule of law, not the rule of whichever party claims to own it.

What The Hell Is Happening In Poland? Let Me Explain 🇵🇱🇪🇺 For everyone outside Poland wondering what the hell is going on, especially after seeing all the dramatic posts about a supposed coup, you need to understand something about Polish politics. I was born in Poland. I remember communism. I remember what Poland was like before it became the country it is today. And watching this political circus unfold is infuriating. From 2015 to 2023, Poland was governed by Law and Justice (PiS), Jarosław Kaczyński’s national-conservative party. During those eight years, PiS pushed through controversial changes to the judicial system, including the Constitutional Tribunal, Poland’s equivalent of a constitutional court. Those changes triggered years of disputes with the European Union over judicial independence and the rule of law. In 2023, Polish voters brought a new parliamentary majority to power, led by Donald Tusk. His coalition promised to repair the damage and restore the independence of Poland’s institutions. But there was a problem. PiS had left behind people in powerful judicial positions, and the presidency became another obstacle to those reforms. Fast-forward to October 30, 2026. A judge announced the suspension of Constitutional Tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski, a PiS-era appointee who had refused to seat judges elected by the current parliamentary majority. The legality of that suspension is now disputed. President Karol Nawrocki, a nationalist closely aligned with PiS, interrupted his trip to Africa, returned to Warsaw, and accused the government of attempting a coup. Police were deployed, protesters gathered, and the entire situation exploded across social media. Now, here’s the part many people outside Poland don’t understand. This confrontation didn’t suddenly appear out of nowhere. It’s the continuation of a constitutional crisis that began more than a decade ago. The current government says it is trying to restore the rule of law. PiS and Nawrocki say the government is violating it. The courts and legal procedures, not social-media hysteria, must ultimately determine what is lawful. And then there’s Nawrocki himself. Just days ago, a former coworker from the Grand Hotel in Sopot testified in court that Nawrocki had suggested she could earn extra money by bringing women to hotel guests. She described an incident that made her suspect he was involved in procuring prostitutes. Nawrocki denies the allegations and has sued the publisher that reported them. No court has established that he engaged in pimping, but the testimony is real, public, and deeply serious. There have also been controversies surrounding his past involvement in an arranged fight and his acquisition of an apartment. And while all this is happening, Kaczyński and his political allies are escalating their confrontational rhetoric about the European Union. Here’s something they should remember: according to a 2026 CBOS survey, 82% of Poles support Poland remaining in the EU. Eighty-two percent. Poland has benefited enormously from European integration, investment, infrastructure development, freedom of movement, and access to the European market. Anyone who remembers Poland before 1989 can appreciate just how extraordinary its transformation has been. Now, I’m not claiming every criticism of the EU means someone wants to leave it. But I am deeply concerned about politicians who repeatedly turn European institutions into enemies while presenting themselves as Poland’s only true patriots. And I’m equally concerned about how easily this political confrontation can be exploited by Russian propaganda. Moscow benefits when European societies distrust their democratic institutions, fight among themselves, and turn against European cooperation. That doesn’t prove every inflammatory post is Russian propaganda. It means we should be extremely careful about who is spreading what, and why. I have absolutely no patience for nationalism dressed up as patriotism, especially in a country that knows what Russian domination looks like. Poland fought too hard to escape Moscow’s influence and build its place in democratic Europe. Patriotism is not loyalty to Kaczyński, Nawrocki, Tusk, or any political party. Patriotism is loyalty to Poland, its Constitution, its democratic institutions, and its people. And no politician should be above the law. Here is a video of very aggressive Polish President Nawrocki forcing his way into Constitutional Tribunal pushing woman aside. His old instincts of hooliganism and pimp is kicking in.