The Polish government has been pushing to remove the Constitutional Tribunal's judges, who were appointed by the previous right-wing administration led by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Riot police were deployed outside Poland's Constitutional Tribunal on Friday after its top judge was suspended amid claims of a judicial "coup d'etat."
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Polish President Karol Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal and arrived at the court overnight as the crisis unfolded.
"At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning," he wrote in a post on X.
The Polish government has been pushing to remove the court's judges, who were appointed by the previous right-wing administration led by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party.
During the PiS party's time in power from 2015 to 2023, the European Union accused Poland's top court of being too closely aligned with the government. The court often ruled in preference of Polish law over EU legislation.
'Coup d'état'
PiS supporters gathered outside the court on Friday night to protest the suspension of the Tribunal's president, Bogdan Święczkowski. Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska had announced that she was taking over the leadership of the Tribunal.
In a post on its official X account, the Tribunal called the move a judicial "coup d'état".
"Ms. Anna Korwin-Piotrowska is not a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal," the post said. "All persons participating in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d'état."
Early on Saturday, Paweł Szefernaker, chief of staff to Nawrocki, said the president had entered the Constitutional Tribunal.
"President Karol Nawrocki, accompanied by Zbigniew Kapiński, First President of the Supreme Court, entered the Constitutional Tribunal building," Szefernaker wrote on X.