(Bloomberg) -- Poland’s nationalist-led opposition, out of office for less than a month, drew thousands to its street demonstration in Warsaw hours after a top court dealt Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s new pro-European government its latest setback. 

The show of defiance and the constitutional court ruling were the culmination of a tense week of political drama that made clear Tusk’s aim to dismantle eight years of Law & Justice party rule is colliding with entrenched structures at the heart of the Polish establishment. 

The Constitutional Tribunal, dominated by nationalist-appointed judges, quashed Tusk’s plans to probe the central bank governor, a Law & Justice ally accused by coalition allies of engaging in political partisanship while in office. It was only the latest setback Tusk’s month-old premiership. 

The former European Council president has confronted a raft of sit-in protests over his bid to overhaul public media, a late-night raid within the presidential palace to arrest two convicted former Law & Justice lawmakers and a nationalist-allied president vowing to thwart his progress. 

With temperatures barely above freezing in the Polish capital, the protesters, led by Law & Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski — once Poland’s most powerful figure — took to the snowy streets. The organizers claimed more than 100,000 people gathered in the streets leading to parliament, where barriers were erected to protect the building from disturbances.

Kaczynski adopted familiarly aggressive language to attack Tusk, his long-time political rival, saying the premier aims to effectively destroy Poland as part of a plan to impose German dominance.  

“What they want is the practical liquidation of our homeland,” Kaczynski told the crowd. “It won’t be a state, but an area inhabited by Poles.”

The unexpected Oct. 15 election victory secured by Tusk and his allies revived hopes that Warsaw will be able to access almost €60 billion ($65.7 billion) in EU aid suspended over rule-of-law concerns.

Protesters waved red-and-white Polish flags and held banners calling for the release of Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik. The two Law & Justice officials — a former interior minister and his deputy — found themselves at the center of the unfolding chaos after being arrested late on Tuesday at the presidential palace, where they were holed up, and taken to prison on an abuse-of-power conviction.

President Andrzej Duda, who expressed shock and called them “political prisoners,” on Thursday said he plans to pardon the two men. Flanked by their wives, Duda appealed for calm during a news conference at the palace. 

“There can’t be such unrest in our homeland,” he said. “I personally feel, as the president of Poland, that I must do everything to prevent the escalation of these events.”

Not Complaining

At the center of much of Poland’s political spectacle in Tusk’s first weeks in power lies a gaping division within the country’s legal system, a legacy of Law & Justice’s overhaul of the judiciary that the EU has pilloried for eroding the independence of the courts. 

The constitutional tribunal said current rules were insufficient to suspend central bank Governor Adam Glapinski, a Law & Justice ally, and new rules must be in place to protect the central bank’s independence against “interference” from a ruling majority. 

The move upends plans to probe Glapinski, whom Tusk allies have accused of engaging in political partnership while in office, irregularities in the bank’s bond-buying program and failure to fight inflation. Glapinski has rejected any wrongdoing. 

A judicial squabble is also at the root of the arrest of the two lawmakers. Before announcing the new pardons, the president had insisted they had already been granted pardons and denounced the parliament speaker’s earlier decision to strip them of their parliamentary mandates as illegal. 

Nationalist-appointed judges had recognized Duda’s initial amnesty, while other judicial bodies said it wasn’t binding because it was issued before a final court ruling. More than 3,000 judges were picked since Law & Justice’s overhaul of the courts gave politicians more influence over appointments. 

Soon after taking office, Tusk’s government kicked off by placing the public broadcaster, widely seen as a propaganda tool of the previous administration, into liquidation — a move that sparked protests and sit-ins by Law & Justice lawmakers. Duda retaliated by blocking a spending bill on Dec. 23. 

In a social media post earlier this month, Tusk acknowledged the heavy lifting involved in reshaping Poland, asking rhetorically who thought that the effort would be “easy and pleasant.” 

“No, it will be heavy, difficult and unpleasant for some time,” the premier said in a Jan. 4 post on X. “This is what you hired me to do. I’m not complaining.” 

--With assistance from Agnieszka Barteczko, Piotr Bujnicki and Wojciech Moskwa.

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