Warsaw hit by third weekend of protests and clashes with police

Protests have taken place in Warsaw for the third weekend in a row. Business owners took to the streets demanding greater state support under lockdown, while a separate demonstration took place outside the studios of a public radio station accused of political censorship. Police intervened in both cases to detain some protesters and fine others.

Members of the Strajk Przedsiębiorców (Strike of Business Owners) began to gather shortly after 2 p.m. outside Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science. While their protests in Warsaw were started by business owners two weeks ago, they have expanded to include other groups opposed to lockdown measures.

Following an forceful police response to previous protests – which last Saturday included the use of tear gas – organisers of this weekend’s demonstrations emphasised they would be peaceful and legal. The police, however, immediately began warning participants over loudspeakers that their gathering was illegal.

As the protest began to move towards the Presidential Palace at 2.30 p.m., it was dispersed into separate groups by the police. The largest group was then surrounded and dismantled by a police cordon. 

This group also included journalists and photographers who were covering the protests. Radio ZET journalist Piotr Drabik tweeted that the police initially did not intend to release the journalists involved, despite checking their ID cards. But they were eventually let go after interventions by opposition senator Jacek Bury and MP Michał Szczerba. 

The police later tweeted that they had asked journalists to “comply with our messages and keep a proper distance”, adding that the force had “operated fully transparently” and “have nothing to hide”.

A number of other participants were detained during the demonstration. Among then was Paweł Tanajno, a fringe presidential candidate who is one of the leaders of the protests. The police announced on Twitter that he had been arrested because he attacked an officer.

Tanajno and other protesters are demanding that the government implement a stronger support package to save jobs and prevent wage reductions due to the pandemic, to introduce tax cuts, and to expand social security exemptions. They have also called for salaries in public administration to be reduced, and for the health minister to resign.

The government has already introduced a series of measures to “unfreeze” the economy from lockdown, as well as to support businesses, workers and the financial sector during the crisis. But the protesters argue this is insufficient, and many fear they are facing bankruptcy.

“The assistance is a fiction,” one protester told RMF24. “The ‘unfreezing’ scheme doesn’t cover my industry at all. We filed the applications [for state support], but we can’t get in touch with the officials, they don’t answer their phones. We’re left with practically nothing.”

The business owners have been joined in their protests by others, including far-right figures and anti-5G conspiracy theorists, as well as some members of the opposition. Saturday’s protests were also supported by farmers for the first time, according to news website Money.pl.

The government argues that its financial assistance for businesses is adequate, with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki saying on Tuesday that their support package is “considered one of the best in the world”.

He added that the government would listen to businesses’ concerns, and expressed his hope that Polish business and industry can take an even more prominent global role after the pandemic. Morawiecki has, however, not accepted the protest leaders’ appeals for him to meet with them.

President Andrzej Duda has also praised the government’s measures to support the economy. He notes that so far 30 billion zloty has been paid by the Polish Development Fund to businesses, with145,000 companies that employ a total of over a million employees benefiting from the support. Poland is set to record the lowest decline in GDP among all EU member states this year.

Interior minister Mariusz Kamiński has also rejected claims that the police response to earlier protests – at which hundreds were detained, often with the use of force – has been heavy handed. Accusations against the police are “groundless and politically motivated”, says Kamiński, quoted by Radio ZET

Some have accused the police of double standards this weekend, noting that they detained protesters in Warsaw for violating social-distancing rules whereas on the same day President Duda held an event at which people gathered in similarly close proximity with no police intervention.

Protest against censorship

A separate protest took place on Friday evening outside the state radio station accused of censoring a song critical of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party’s chairman, Jarosław Kaczynski. Among the participants were former and present employees of the station, as well as left-wing presidential candidate Robert Biedroń.

Around 200 demonstrators held up placards saying “Wolne Media” (“Free Media”) and “Stop PiS”. The police eventually intervened and issued fines to some protesters, arguing they had contravened lockdown restrictions on gatherings.

The controversy began a week earlier, when Polish Radio Three’s popular music chart disappeared from the station’s website soon after it had gone online. The reason for its removal was that it had been topped by a song critical of Kaczyński’s behaviour during the commemoration of the Smolensk tragedy in April.

The head of the radio station claimed that the chart had been “manipulated” to put the protest song in first place, prompting its removal. Many, however, believe a political decision was made to censor the song. A number of senior presenters and other staff have quit the station in protest.

Main image credit: Sławomir Kamiński/Agencja Gazeta

Juliette Bretan

Juliette Bretan is a freelance journalist covering Polish and Eastern European current affairs and culture. Her work has featured on the BBC World Service, and in CityMetric, The Independent, Ozy, New Eastern Europe and Culture.pl.