Leader of Law and Justice party, PiS, Jarosław Kaczyński | Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty Images Poland’s PiS warns critics: We’re not changing, get used to it Jarosław Kaczyński shows no sign of giving way in fight with highest court.

Jarosław Kaczyński blasted the country’s top constitutional court and its chief justice Monday for causing “anarchy” in Poland and insisted he would stay the course in a growing constitutional crisis.

Although Kaczyński is officially no more than an MP, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) gave what amounted to a national address, against the backdrop of Polish flags, with Prime Minister Beata Szydło and other ministers listening attentively and applauding. The speech was televised across the country.

He made it clear that the government has no intention of dialing back the level of confrontation around the Constitutional Tribunal, and called for a revamping of the country’s constitution. The signal from the country's most powerful politician is that the crisis will end only on his party's terms, despite growing international, domestic and economic pressure for a resolution.

Kaczyński chastised the tribunal, and especially Andrzej Rzepliński, its head, accusing the court of not following the country’s constitution and refusing to obey a new law that regulates its functioning, which the tribunal ruled in March was unconstitutional.

“We will not allow for anarchy in Poland, even if that is anarchy which is spread by the courts,” Kaczyński said.

A state of confusion

The standoff is creating legal chaos, battering Poland's reputation as the EU's most successful post-communist country. That’s because the government has refused to publish the tribunal’s March verdict on the rule changes in the government gazette, normally the final step in making a ruling binding.

While the government doesn’t recognize the tribunal’s ruling, other courts are doing so. When Poland’s Supreme Court said recently it would be bound by the tribunal’s verdicts, Beata Mazurek, a party spokeswoman, called the justices “a crew of cronies defending the status quo.” The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal for lower courts, while the tribunal rules on constitutionality of laws passed by parliament.

Regional and local governments controlled by the opposition are also falling into line behind the tribunal, creating the danger of a divided legal system and a split in the country, where much of the east backs PiS while the opposition is stronger in the center and the west.

“Besides the obvious legal uncertainty, this issue will also likely lead to further political polarization, which is now engulfing the country’s institutional framework,” said Otilia Dhand, an analyst with Teneo Intelligence.

The tribunal’s position has been backed by the Venice Commission, a body of the Council of Europe, as well as by officials from the European Commission, a majority of MEPs, and many of Poland’s closest allies.

“We will follow our own path,” Kaczynski said in a speech that also touched on economics, the military and foreign policy — essentially the equivalent of a head of government's speech on the state of the nation.

Despite calls from inside and outside the country, the government is refusing to back down. Andrzej Duda, the PiS-supported president, last week swore in a newly elected justice to the tribunal, continuing to ignore calls to swear in three justices chosen by the previous parliament — another factor in the constitutional crisis.

The answer, suggested Kaczyński, would be to amend the country’s constitution. However, PiS isn’t close to the two-thirds vote in parliament needed to change the constitution, and opposition parties aren’t inclined to play along.

“There will be no talks on changing the constitution until PiS follows the current one,” Sławomir Neumann, head of the parliamentary wing of Civic Platform, the largest opposition party, told reporters on Monday.

Currency gyrations

The standoff over the court is also having an economic impact. Poland’s złoty has been one of the worst-performing emerging market currencies over the course of April, as investors have been spooked both by expensive spending promises made by the government and by the prospect of a downgrade by Moody’s, a rating agency, on May 13. In a recent statement, Moody’s called the fight over the tribunal “credit negative.”

The tension is likely to grow, as the opposition has called for a large street protest on May 7.

That is putting pressure on Kaczyński and PiS to find a way out of the deadlock over the tribunal while both saving face and not giving any significant ground.

An earlier meeting of Kaczyński and other party leaders came to nothing.

“There is no point in another meeting with Jarosław Kaczyński,” Ryszard Petru, leader of the liberal Modern party, told reporters on Friday.

As part of its effort to find an exit, PiS last week proposed a new parliamentary law regulating the tribunal. However, it keeps many of the most controversial elements of the law the tribunal ruled violated the constitution — such as changing the votes needed from a simply majority to two-thirds of justices, and forcing the tribunal to rule on cases in chronological order instead of choosing the most important ones.

Ryszard Terlecki, PiS’s parliamentary leader, called the bill “an attempt at a compromise,” but Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz, a Modern MP, told Poland’s TVN24 television that the legislation does nothing to resolve the current crisis.

“My experience tells me that proposing such projects by PiS means that PiS’s war with the [Constitutional Tribunal] is going to worsen,” she said, adding, “At the moment what the [Constitutional Tribunal] needs is the publication of the verdict of March 9, 2016, and the president to swear in the three legally elected justices.”