Nov 3 (Reuters) – Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused Russia on Tuesday of seeking to fuel “instability” in Poland by meddling in a dispute between his government and the president over the Constitutional Tribunal.
A crisis over the appointment of judges to Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal over the weekend has pushed a simmering conflict between President Karol Nawrocki, a nationalist, and Tusk’s pro-European government into open confrontation.
Tensions came to a head last week when the head of the Constitutional Tribunal, allied with Nawrocki’s nationalists, was suspended and crowds gathered outside the court in support of him.
Russian politicians including Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, described the Tusk government’s moves in the dispute over the tribunal as “a coup”.
“We observe activity by Russia and pro-Russian politicians —both internationally and within the country, centering around our cause, which is defending the Constitutional Tribunal against aggressive behaviour by politicians and the demonstrators they provoke,” Tusk told a government sitting.
“We are all familiar with the Russian method of becoming involved in internal conflicts. Today, we are witnessing tensions provoked by the Russians, whether in connection with the midterm elections (in the US) or through the fuelling of a sense of instability (in Poland), based on the aggressive behaviour of opposition politicians and the president.”
The Russian embassy in Warsaw did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Despite their bitter personal and political rivalry, both Tusk and Nawrocki are longstanding critics of Russia, especially over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and support increased defence spending in the face of what they see as Moscow’s threats to European security.
(Reporting by Alicja Surdy, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Marek Strzelecki, Pawel Florkiewicz and Anna KoperEditing by Gareth Jones)
