About 500,000 people marched through Warsaw to protest the current Law and Justice (PIS) government, following a call by opposition leader and former European Council president Donald Tusk ahead of this year’s upcoming election.
The massive rally took place on the 34th anniversary of the breakthrough election that led to the collapse of communist rule in Poland. Tusk now leads the biggest opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), which aims to remove the current Law and Justice (PiS) government in power from 2015.
“Poland is in our hearts, and that’s why we’ve survived these tough years,” Tusk said, referring to the eight-year PiS rule. “Democracy dies in silence, but you’ve raised your voice for democracy today. Silence is over. We will shout,” he insisted.
Tusk appealed to the crowd gathered at the march to protest against “theft, high prices and lies” by the ruling party and campaign for free elections and a democratic and European Poland.
“Here’s my pledge to you today: We are going to win this election and hold PiS accountable,” Tusk added.
We are here so that the whole of Poland, the whole of Europe, and the whole world could see how strong we are, how many of us are ready again, just like 40 and 30 years ago, to fight for democracy, for Poland and our rights, he added.
The march received fresh impetus this week with the new controversial law establishing a panel to investigate the Russian interference in Polish politics, which could see anybody making political decisions under Russia’s sway banned from holding public office for 10 years without a court ruling.
In Poland, the bill was dubbed “lex Tusk,” as the opposition and numerous critics believe the panel was mostly created again to oust Tusk, PiS’ longtime main political adversary, as he had already left Polish politics after he left his post as the head of the European People’s Party in 2021 to return to PO, of which he is a co-founder.
The law met with a strong backlash from the US Department of State and the European Commission.
It “grants significant powers to an administrative body which could be used to bar individuals from public office and which hence could restrict their rights,” according to a letter Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders sent to Poland, seen by EURACTIV.
Tusk’s Sunday march faced criticism from PiS, with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki saying he was amused by “the old foxes” of Polish politics organising an anti-government march and presenting it as a spontaneous civil protest.
The event was attended by ex-President Lech Wałęsa, Nobel Prize winner and historic leader of the Solidarity movement, widely recognised as having played a central role in ending Communist rule in Poland, and Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski (PO).
“I am the successful man of the millennium, as some people say. (…) I want you to understand my success and achieve a similar one,” Wałęsa told people attending the march before prematurely ending his speech due to the enthusiastic shouting in the crowd.
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)
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