Polish PM Tusk likens court crisis to a “purse snatcher”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk addressed the nation following events outside the Constitutional Tribunal. Tusk compared the main opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) to a thief who snatched an elderly woman’s purse and, after being caught, shouted that he had been assaulted.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk addressed the nation on Saturday evening over the deepening crisis surrounding the management of the Constitutional Tribunal. Speaking in front of Polish and EU flags, Tusk described the events outside the tribunal building as “shameful” and sharply criticized the main opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) with a striking analogy.

Proposal to “share the purse between the thief and the victim”

“I will make an analogy to simplify the issue,” Tusk said, continuing: “Imagine a thief snatching an elderly woman’s purse and running away. When he is caught, he begins shouting that he has been assaulted and accuses those trying to recover his loot of theft.”

Tusk also criticized what he described as the attitude of some spectators and “symmetrists,” who, in an effort to calm the situation, suggested that the thief and the victim share the contents of the purse equally.

Opening his speech with the events of the previous day, Tusk said: “I sincerely hope that we will never again have to witness such scenes in Poland. But preserving peace cannot mean submitting to lawlessness and violence. A democratic state must be strong and capable of delivering justice.”

“It was not a real court”

Tusk described the attack on the tribunal and its judges as “another stage” in the process by PiS and Presidents Andrzej Duda and Karol Nawrocki of dismantling the rule of law in Poland. He also stressed that police responded to every sign of aggression calmly but firmly.

Tusk said they were trying to “repair” the tribunal together with the parliamentary majority. He said no one doubted that the tribunal imposed by PiS was not a real court, adding that this was the shared assessment of international institutions, legal authorities in Poland and the public.

Tusk also alleged that it was no coincidence that groups seeking to destroy democracy had found support from pro-Russian forces around the world, used Russian bots online in the conflict and received praise from the “Kremlin’s chief ideologue.”

The crisis began on Oct. 30, when Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, elected by parliament but whose oath was not accepted by President Nawrocki, suspended Tribunal President Bogdan Święczkowski and his deputy Bartłomiej Sochański from their duties for one month. Nawrocki, who cut short his visit to Senegal, went to the tribunal late at night and invited the parties to emergency consultations on Saturday.

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