Polish police swooped on the country's presidential palace Tuesday to arrest two convicted members of the ousted national-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS).
The police in Warsaw announced the arrests on X. According to the Polish media, the two were arrested inside the presidential palace in another spectacular twist in a power struggle between the Polish right and left.
Center-left Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused right-wing President Andrzej Duda of obstructing the imprisonment of former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his former state secretary Maciej Wasik.
"Mr. President, my heartfelt appeal for the good of the Polish state: you must put an end to this spectacle. It will lead us into a very dangerous situation," Tusk said in Warsaw. Poland is a member of both NATO and the European Union.
He warned that Duda, who is from the PiS ranks, and PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski would be held accountable for sabotaging the constitution and breaking the law.
The political rivals have been at loggerheads since the pro-European Tusk and his coalition toppled the long-time ruling party in elections.
The police in Warsaw confirmed that a court order had been received to take both convicted politicians to prison.
Footage from broadcaster TVN24 showed police officers searching in vain for the men at their homes in the morning.
But Kaminski and Wasik were then photographed posing side by side with the head of state at a reception in the palace, according to images published by Duda's law firm on X.
Kaminski said: "We are not hiding. At the moment we are with Poland's president until evil loses."
They were eventually arrested in the evening, with reports saying Duda was no longer in the palace.
Both had previously been sentenced in the first instance to three years in prison for abuse of office.
The reason for the conviction was an affair uncovered in 2007, in which the anti-corruption agency, then headed by Kaminski, was said to have deliberately orchestrated a corruption case in order to discredit the then Agriculture Minister Andrzej Lepper.
In 2015, immediately after the PiS came to power, Duda pardoned Kaminski and Wasik in a controversial decision.
Last June, Poland's Supreme Court overturned their pardons.
Both had to face trial again. At the end of December, the Warsaw District Court sentenced them to two years in prison.
Duda emphasized again on Monday that in his opinion, the pardon from 2015 was still valid.
A parliamentary session that was scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday was postponed until next week in view of the tense situation.
