“We’re at war with Germany and the EU”: nationalist Independence March passes through Warsaw

Tens of thousands attended today’s nationalist Independence March in Warsaw, which was for the first time made an official state event by the government, in order to bypass court rulings that had effectively banned it.

Unlike last year’s march, which saw violent attacks by some participants on police, today’s event passed peacefully. Xenophobic and anti-LGBT rhetoric was, however, present, while one section of the procession displayed white supremacist symbols.

“There is a war taking place,” declared the march’s main organiser, far-right leader Robert Bąkiewicz, in a speech at the start of the march. “This war is not only on the border [with Belarus], but also with Germany and the European Union.”

“Poland is attacked from the east by Moscow, which is using Belarus…[but] also from the west,” he continued, quoted by RMF24. “We are attacked by Germany, which uses EU institutions to take over our sovereignty. They want to take away our national, cultural and even gender identity.”

Bąkiewicz’s words echoed those of Jarosław Kaczyński – chairman of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and Poland’s de facto leader – who yesterday said that that Poland “faces enormous challenges on our eastern border and also from the west”.

The far-right groups and individuals involved in organising the Independence March are not formally linked to PiS, though organisations led by Bąkiewicz have recently received large state subsidies.

This year, the government also stepped in to help the march go ahead after courts and Warsaw’s opposition-controlled authorities issued decisions that gave its route over to an anti-fascist demonstration.

Earlier this week, the head of the government’s Office for Veterans and Victims of Oppression, Jan Józef Kasprzyk, announced that the march would be made a state event, thereby exempting it from provisions of the law on assemblies. Today Kasprzyk walked at the head of the march alongside Bąkiewicz.

Among others to attend the march were a deputy leader of PiS, former defence minister Antoni Macierewicz, and an MEP from the ruling coalition, former deputy justice minister Patryk Jaki. Senior PiS figures, however, were elsewhere, with Kaczyński and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki attending events in Kraków.

Organisers claim that over 150,000 people took part in the march. The police have yet to announce their official estimate of attendance, but in previous years it has been significantly lower than that of the organisers (and has usually ranged between around 70,000 and 100,000).

While the vast majority of the crowd at today’s march – which included families with children – celebrated the day peacefully, a number of extremist incidents also occurred.

As participants gathered before the start of the event, some men set fire to an image of Donald Tusk, the former European Council president who is now leader of Poland’s largest opposition party. Later, one of the same men – whose identity is not known – set fire to a German flag, calling it “fascist”.

Some participants were heard chanting “the USA is the centre of evil”, “no wars for Israel”, and “down with the European Union”.

In one extremist section of the march, known as the “black block”, a banner saying “It’s okay to stay white” alongside a flag of Poland was carried. Numerous Celtic crosses, a symbol often used by white supremacists, were visible.

The flags of Forza Nuova, an Italian neo-fascist party, were also present alongside those of National Radical Camp (ONR), a Polish far-right group that is one of the founders of the march and has invited Forza Nuova to attend in the past.

Another of the march’s founders, All-Polish Youth (Młodzież Wszechpolska), displayed a banner showing the opposition mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, shaved bald. Far-right groups in Poland often refer to the wartime punishment of shaving the heads of traitors.

Before the march, organisers had circulated mocked-up wartime notices likening Trzaskowski, who has made repeated attempts to have the event banned, to the city’s former Nazi-German occupiers.

Asked about the banner, Trzaskowski told TVN24 that he would not take any action as “we live in a free country” and “there’s nothing wrong with criticising me”. He also expressed his relief that the march had passed without any serious incidents.

Participants in the march also chanted thanks to Poland’s armed forces for their efforts in preventing thousands of migrants – mainly from the Middle East, Asia and Africa – crossing the border from Belarus.

“Stop illegal immigration, stop the flooding of Europe with a wave from the whole world, stop false humanitarianism,” said far-right leader and MP Robert Winnicki during a speech at the end of the march. “Poland for the Poles.”

Main image credit: Adam Stepien / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

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.