A ruling by the constitutional court on 22 October that introduces a near-total ban on abortion has prompted the largest protests Poland has seen since the fall of communism in 1989. Opinion polls show a majority of the public opposed to the court’s decision and supportive of the protests.
Meanwhile, the government has still not published the ruling – required for it to come into force – despite the deadline passing. The government says that it is first trying to “calm the public mood” and “work out a new position”. One “compromise” has been put forward by the president.
The protests have been coordinated by All Poland Women’s Strike (Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet, OSK), which has mobilised hundreds of thousands of people to come onto the streets in more than 500 cities and towns across the country. We spoke with OSK’s leader, 41-year-old lawyer Marta Lempart, earlier this week.
Florian Bayer: Ms Lempart, how are you?
Marta Lempart: I receive around 300 threats a day, by telephone, text message, email and also post. I have also moved out of my home because my address was published and it is no longer safe there. I haven’t been home to my apartment now for two weeks.
But this shows that I’m doing something right. I am top of the agenda in all government media.
Since 2015, when the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power, you have played an active leadership role in numerous protest movements: the Black Protests, Women’s Strike, the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (KOD). What is different about the current protests?
People are very angry because the government is targeting abortions and women’s rights, in the middle of the coronavirus crisis where healthcare provision, the school system and the economy are collapsing and ought to be the priority. However, our earlier protests laid the groundwork for our current actions.
Did the government underestimate how big the opposition to the tightening of the abortion laws would be?
I don’t know whether they thought about it at all. It could well be that PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński simply forgot to call the Constitutional Tribunal and postpone the law change to a more suitable time.
For the first time there are demonstrations against the Catholic church – which is extremely powerful in Poland.
After countless church representatives articulated how happy they were with the tightening [of the law], we wanted to send a signal, and demonstrated in several churches. That was probably a one-off, though. We stand for a secular Poland, but the main enemy remains the government. Unfortunately, at the moment it is also the police and the prosecution authorities, who act openly in the interest of PiS, not in the interest of the state and the citizens.
How are the protests organised?
Decentralised and bottom-up. There are committees for coordination. At the help desk – where I am based – we collect donations, take care of the organisation, hand out materials and put forward collective actions.
Alongside us is the consultation council, comprising around 200 activists, experts and citizens. The council is organised into 13 working groups, each tasked with a different issue. What are people fighting for out on the street? How can they achieve this? We look for solutions to these questions.
The Polish opposition has been splintered for years. How much party politics can and should find its way into the protests?
As much as people want. We should not forcefully exclude politicians but they should not put us under pressure. Many have valuable experience that we can use. But we should not let them use us.
Your movement has many supporters. You want, among other things, independent courts, for the government to step down, more rights for women, a better healthcare system and the removal of religious education. Do you not run the risk of wanting too much and spreading yourself too thinly?
No one should prescribe what people should and should not be protesting for. Obviously, it would be easier to say: there is a fixed, defined goal that can no longer change. But it’s no longer a question of what is comfortable or not. Our task is to reach as many demonstrators as possible and to ask where they need help.
Today [11 November] Poland is celebrating regaining its independence [in 1918]. Every year, tens of thousands of nationalists march through the city – probably this year too, even despite the pandemic.
Last week, Kaczyński incited neo-fascists to violence and called on them to defend Poland [Kaczyński gave an address calling on supporters of his national-conservative PiS party to “defend Polish churches at any cost” – ed.]. But that is not our fight. Instead of a counter-demonstration we have organised an eight-hour online event: we are cleaning up hate speech from online forums and social media, we are organising expert panels, and we will collectively send protest emails to the government.
Numbers of new coronavirus infections in Poland are rising sharply – around 50% of all tests have been positive on some days recently. How will the protests continue?
We aren’t actually allowed to demonstrate now – in any case according to an unconstitutional ruling – because only gatherings of up to five people are permitted. But this isn’t stopping us from protesting. Therefore, the protests will continue even with a full lockdown.
The government claims that with your protests you are accelerating the spread of coronavirus.
That is propaganda, complete lies. The person responsible for the abortion ruling is Kaczyński and he is the reason we are demonstrating. He is also the person who decides how it continues. I actually don’t want to discuss the government and its propaganda.
What would you like from the EU and its member states?
It should begin to show interest in us because we are fighting for fundamental EU rights. EU politicians speak to our repressive, lying, criminal government instead of listening to the citizens. There are some standalone positive voices in the European Parliament, but this is often too little, too late.
The European Commission should finally press ahead with the rule of law case against Poland instead of waiting until we are all in prison. We need protection from the police and from the prosecution authorities.
Some say that nowhere in Europe is the religious, political, and societal divide deeper than in Poland. What can be done about this?
It is the obligation of a new government to heal the wounds. For this there are specialists and certainly a solution. I am not there to be nice or to act as mediator. I am needed now because we are at war.
This interview was originally published in Germany by ZEIT Online here on 11 November. Translated into English by Kate Martyr.
Main image credit: Maciek Jazwiecki / Agencja Gazeta
