Polish police entered the presidential palace on Tuesday to detain two MPs who were staying there to avoid arrest.

The pair, members of the former ruling party, were welcomed into the palace by Andrzej Duda, the president, as police went to their homes in search of them.

Polish media reported that the men were arrested inside the palace.

Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik were convicted of abuse of power for actions taken in 2007, when they served in an earlier Law and Justice-led government.

Mr Duda pardoned them in 2015, though legal experts argued that such pardons were reserved for cases that had gone through all appeals.

Political turmoil

In June, Poland’s supreme court overturned the pardons and ordered a retrial. 

In December, Mr Kaminski and Mr Wasik were sentenced to two years in prison.

On Monday, a court issued orders for police to arrest them and to deliver them to prison. They insisted they were innocent, and Mr Duda argued that the pardons remained valid.

The arrests shone a light on Poland’s political turmoil since a new pro-EU coalition last month ousted the Law and Justice party, which had governed the country for eight years.

Mr Duda is closely aligned with Law and Justice and has made it clear that he will oppose the new government, led by Donald Tusk, the prime minister. 

Mr Duda’s second and final term runs until mid-2025.

Mr Tusk, who has promised to restore democratic norms in Poland, accused the president of going along with actions by Law and Justice to create chaos and instability after its electoral defeat, saying Mr Duda “must stop this spectacle, which is leading to a very dangerous situation”.

The prime minister claimed that the president was obstructing justice by giving the wanted men refuge. 

At a news conference, he read out a section of the penal code that he alleged Mr Duda had violated, which carries a prison term from three months to five years.

“I just want the president to be aware of what his political friends have tricked him into,” said Mr Tusk.

Mr Kaminski is a former head of the Central Anticorruption Bureau, who was convicted along with Mr Wasik and two others of abusing their power for creating a provocation in a sting operation seeking to frame their targets.

That scandal contributed to the collapse of Law and Justice’s first government in 2007.

Mr Tusk’s allies welcomed the arrests, saying that they marked a return to officials being held accountable. 

“Let this be a warning to politicians for the next generation,” foreign minister Radek Sikorski posted on social media.

Marcin Kierwinski, the new interior minister, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Everyone is equal before the law.”

Former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki was among Law and Justice officials who voiced outrage, describing the arrested men as “political prisoners”.