(Bloomberg) -- Two former Polish lawmakers tried to force their way into parliament despite their mandates being revoked in the latest standoff between the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the nationalist opposition.

Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik sought an entry into the building on Wednesday, flanked by their party colleagues including Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland’s most powerful politician before Law & Justice was ousted from power in October’s elections. But in hectic scenes and a shoving match, the pair was denied entry by parliamentary guards.

“We wanted to show that the government is acting completely illegally,” Kaczynski told reporters outside parliament. “They will be held accountable for this one day.”

Both Kaminski and Wasik were found guilty of abuse of power by a court and sent to prison before being pardoned by the president, a Law & Justice ally. Their case became a cause celebre for the opposition, which called them “political prisoners” and brought tens of thousands of its supporters to the streets of Warsaw last month.

Their arrests on the premises of the presidential palace, where they briefly sought shelter last month, plunged Poland into a political crisis as Tusk sought to bring former ruling party officials to account. 

Parliament Speaker Szymon Holownia called Wednesday’s attempt at forced entry into the legislature an act of “political vandalism.”

The case of Kaminski and Wasik has exposed Poland’s fragmented court system, a legacy of nationalist government, as different chambers of the Supreme Court issued conflicting rulings about the duo’s status as lawmakers. 

Tusk has grappled with political chaos since he took office on Dec. 13, confronting stiff resistance to his attempts to overhaul the media and the judiciary. Fitch Ratings warned on Monday that “the level and frequency of confrontation” has exceeded expectations and could complicate the government’s agenda, which includes freeing up billions in euro of blocked EU aid.

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