Poland says the situation around the Constitutional Court is stabilizing

Poland's Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek has said that the situation around the Constitutional Court is stabilizing.

He said this on the air of the TVN24 television channel.

"The prosecutor's office and the police have in a certain way passed the test, since they did not allow an escalation. The people who in fact attacked the building of the Constitutional Court were led out of there or left on their own. From this point of view, one can say that the situation is stabilizing," he said.
Żurek also noted that the judges' decisions are convincing for him. In his words, it was necessary to achieve through legal methods that the legally elected judges be able to begin their work. "I would very much like a general assembly to take place; it should resolve budget issues, as well as, possibly, issues of immunity," the minister added.

Tension arose in Poland because of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's decision to appoint Maciej Berek, a former minister in his government, as a judge of the Constitutional Court. As a result, protests have regularly taken place near the building of this body in recent weeks. On the night of October 31, the situation escalated. Additional forces were deployed to guard the grounds of the building. Protesters gathered near the court building and tried to break through the fence, and clashes occurred between the crowd and police officers.

Poland's Karol Nawrocki interrupted his flight to Senegal and turned his plane back to Warsaw on the evening of October 30 in connection with the removal from duty of the acting chairman of the Constitutional Court, Bogdan Święczkowski. Upon returning to the capital, the Polish leader met with the First President of the Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapiński. After that, at around midnight local time (02:00 Moscow time), Nawrocki arrived at the Constitutional Court and entered the building. This was accompanied by a scuffle with the judges standing at the entrance to the building, who tried not to let the head of state in; the incident was captured on video and published by judge Maciej Berek. A scuffle also occurred between the police and officers of the presidential security service.