Tens of thousands join nationalist Independence March in Warsaw

Tens of thousands of people today attended the annual march in Warsaw marking Poland’s independence day.

The event is organised by far-right groups but also draws mainstream conservatives. Among those present this year were the justice minister and a deputy leader of the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.

At 2 p.m. participants gathered at the usual meeting point on Roman Dmowski Roundabout beneath a sea of white-and-red Polish flags and with many people letting off flares. After singing the national anthem and praying the rosary, the marchers set off.

Some previous marches have seen violent clashes with police, and the deputy interior minister warned this week that Russia could engineer “provocations” to cause trouble. But the event passed peacefully.

Warsaw’s mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski – an opposition figure who has unsuccessfully tried to ban the march in the past – confirmed that only a few minor incidents occurred, reports Gazeta.pl.

However, the mayor raised concern about anti-Ukrainian and anti-EU slogans that appeared during the event. In one section, supporters of Grzegorz Braun, a far-right MP, held signs saying “Stop the Ukrainisation of Poland”, referring to this year’s mass arrival of Ukrainian refugees.

Meanwhile, All-Polish Youth (Młodzież Wszechpolska), a nationalist group that is one of the organisers of the march, set up a stand where people could wipe their feet on the EU flag and an LGBT rainbow flag.

Two of the group’s female activists also burned a flag featuring the logo of Women’s Strike (Strajk Kobiet), a feminist group that has led protests against Poland’s near total abortion ban.

All Polish-Youth’s section of the march featured banners showing crossed-out images of communism, Nazism and anti-fascism, as well as of Russian president Vladimir Putin and Stepan Bandera, a WWII Ukrainian nationalist leader whose organisation was responsible for killing tens of thousands of ethnic Poles.

Further anti-Russian sentiment was also expressed during the march, with some participants singing “F**k Russia and Belarus” and one group hanging an effigy of Vladimir Putin from a bridge.

In a radical-nationalist sections of the march, symbols such as the Black Sun and Celtic cross – which are used globally by neo-fascists and white nationalists – were visible, as in previous years. One banner said, in English, “White Lives Matter”.

The main organiser of the event, Robert Bąkiewicz, claimed that attendance was “almost 100,000”. Warsaw city hall did not give an estimate of numbers, but said that there were “fewer people than in previous years”, when attendance has sometimes surpassed 100,000.

Among those marching near the front was Zbigniew Ziobro, the justice minister and leader of United Poland (Solidarna Polska), a hard-right junior partner in Poland’s ruling coalition. Alongside him was Antoni Macierewicz, a deputy leader of the main ruling PiS party.

Ziobro said that it was vital for Poles to continue defending their sovereignty, especially “at a time when Russia is rebuilding its empire by force [and] when Germany is turning the EU into one country under its leadership”.

Main image credit: Martyna Niecko / 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.