Warsaw police detained a 30-year-old man on Saturday, 31 October 2026, who was carrying a knife and a loaded blank-firing pistol during a demonstration outside Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, amid the political fight over the court’s judges, Agerpres reports citing dpa.

A protest organiser noticed the man with a partly covered face; when she asked him to uncover it, he allegedly struck her and fled. Protesters chased him shouting “Provocateur!” and security officers detained him. Search finds: a knife, blank-round pistol, a “Security” badge resembling a police ID, and drugs.

The backdrop is the tribunal dispute: PiS (2015–2023) packed the court with allies; Donald Tusk’s coalition seeks to unwind those judicial changes. The court website said the president and deputy — PiS appointees — were temporarily suspended; PiS supporters have protested since Friday evening.

President Karol Nawrocki, back from an Africa trip, accused Tusk of a “forcible takeover” of a constitutional body and called for emergency talks. Tusk wrote on X that the government is restoring the rule of law, a process that is “difficult, sometimes even painful.”

The armed man’s detention raises the stakes around the building; police keep a security cordon while the two camps remain at odds over control of the top constitutional court.

Image: Constitutional Tribunal, Warsaw (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl).

Sources consulted: Armed man detained outside Constitutional Tribunal - AGERPRES.