Anti-vaccine movement founded in Poland with support of ruling party MP

A new movement opposed to coronavirus vaccine requirements has been launched in Poland. Among its supporters is an MP from the ruling party, despite one of the party’s leaders recently warning that members with anti-vaccine views could be excluded from electoral lists in future.

The One Poland (Polska Jest Jedna) movement was inaugurated yesterday in the town of Siemianowice Śląskie, whose mayor, Rafał Piech, is one of its founders. Another is Anna Maria Siarkowska, an MP from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.

“We are here to fight for freedom, for our rights, and for our dignity, to fight against sanitary segregation,” said Piech, quoted by Radio Maryja. He warned that the “goal” of authorities is to “divide” society into “vaccinated and unvaccinated”.

In a video released by the group, its prominent supporters, including Siarkowska, appeal to President Andrzej Duda to “veto all legal acts that violate civil rights and freedoms”. They warn that the government is “considering the introduction of compulsory vaccination” and also criticise previous lockdown measures.

So far, the government has rejected the idea of making vaccines compulsory. Instead, it has tried to encourage people to get the jab through incentives such as a lottery for fully vaccinated people with a one million zloty top prize.

However, a number of senior figures – including Jarosław Kaczyński, the chairman of PiS – have warned that people who refuse to vaccinate can expect to be subject to additional restrictions. In his speech yesterday, Piech said that such measures would amount to “indirect coercion”.

Other prominent figures to lend their support to the new movement are journalists Witold Gadowski and Jan Pospieszalski. The latter recently lost his show on state broadcaster TVP for “fuelling anti-vaccine hysteria and attacking the government’s fight against the pandemic”, in the words of the station’s CEO.

“If someone wants to tell the truth, is he drowned out?” asked Piech yesterday. “What direction are we going in?”

The mayor emphasised, however, that he was not opposed to vaccines in general, saying that he, his wife and children had received other vaccines. He said he was simply concerned about taking a Covid vaccine because “we do not know what the consequences will be”.

The One Poland movement also includes the names of at least four medical doctors among its supports, one of whom, Zbigniew Hałat, served as a deputy health minister and Chief Sanitary Inspector in the early 1990s.

Poland, like many other countries, has seen a growing movement opposed to coronavirus vaccines. Last month, thousands joined a march against vaccinations and pandemic restrictions.

As well as peaceful protests, other activities have included an arson attack on a vaccination point and a uniformed group entering an orphanage to prevent children from being vaccinated.

Some activities have been undertaken or supported by nationalist groups. A far-right MP recently warned the health minister in parliament that he “will hang” for the government’s Covid policies. The minister has been given additional security.

Last week, the head of PiS’s parliamentary caucus, Ryszard Terlecki, warned that MPs from the party who are openly opposed to coronavirus vaccines could be excluded from electoral lists at the next elections.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.