European Parliament President Roberta Metsola has called for support for parliamentary democracy in Poland as the country's escalating crisis over its Constitutional Tribunal brought protests into the parliament in Warsaw.

Metsola addressed the Polish Parliament, the Sejm, on Friday, urging backing for parliamentary democracy as Poland faces a deepening constitutional confrontation between Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government and President Karol Nawrocki, who is aligned with the conservative opposition Law and Justice party, known as PiS.

Her speech was interrupted by protests from PiS MPs. Conservative parliamentarians held up banners accusing Tusk of staging a coup d'état, while another banner displayed the words "Tusk = Dictator". Metsola nevertheless struck a conciliatory tone during her address.

The crisis erupted on 30 October, when Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, the tribunal's longest-serving judge, suspended the tribunal's president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and vice-president Bartłomiej Sochański for one month and assumed leadership of the court. Riot police were deployed around the tribunal's headquarters in Warsaw as protesters gathered, and President Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal and returned to the capital.

At the heart of the dispute is the appointment of new judges. Parliament has elected eight new members of the Constitutional Tribunal, but the president has refused to swear them in. The European Commission has supported parliament's authority to appoint the judges; on 1 November a Commission spokesperson told Euronews that the appointment of the eight members lies within the constitutional powers of the Sejm.

A top aide to President Nawrocki, Marcin Przydacz, said on Saturday that the Tusk government's move was "completely illegal" and "against the rule of law". Tusk has defended the action as part of an effort to restore judicial independence after years in which the tribunal was filled with judges his government and the European Union do not recognise.

[Source: themalteseherald.com](https://themalteseherald.com/2026/11/07/roberta-metsola-calls-for-parliamentary-democracy-in-poland-as-pis-mps-protest-against-donald-tusk/) | [Source: newsmax.com](https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/poland-tusk-przydacz/2026/11/07/id/1275506)