WARSAW, Poland — Poland plunged into a deepening constitutional crisis this weekend after judges backed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government moved to take control of the country's top court, prompting President Karol Nawrocki to turn his plane around midflight and rush back to Warsaw.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Constitutional Tribunal for a second night Saturday, as riot police guarded the building and the two sides traded accusations of lawbreaking in a long-running dispute over who legitimately controls the court.

Nawrocki's camp and the opposition Law and Justice party, known as PiS, called the events a coup. Tusk's government said it was acting to restore judicial independence after years of what it describes as political capture of the court by the previous PiS government.

The crisis erupted Friday evening when judges chosen this year by the parliamentary majority entered the tribunal. Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska announced she had suspended the court's president, Bogdan Święczkowski, for failing to properly exercise his duties, and said that as the judge with the longest experience, she had taken over as acting head.

An announcement on the tribunal's website also ordered the suspension of Vice President Bartłomiej Sochański. The tribunal's leadership later challenged the announcement, saying its website had been unlawfully taken over and accusing those behind the move of a "coup d'etat."

Riot police surrounded the building and held back protesters, including opposition politicians. Święczkowski himself was blocked by police from entering the grounds after some of his supporters used a power tool to cut through a fence.

At the time, Nawrocki was flying to Senegal for a state visit. "I am cutting short my flight to Senegal," he announced, ordering his plane to return to Warsaw.

President pushes into the court

Nawrocki went to the........

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