Current European elections as important as 1989, says Tusk at Warsaw rally

Thousands gathered in Warsaw on Tuesday for a rally organised by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) to commemorate the anniversary of the partially free elections in 1989 that paved the way for the fall of Poland’s communist regime.

Addressing the crowd, Tusk declared that this week’s European elections would be as important as those 35 years ago and warned of the continued threat of Russia, which has been linked by the Polish authorities to a spate of recent sabotage, espionage and cyberattack cases in Poland.

“I know it is difficult for everyone to understand, but there, in the Kremlin, the possible political capture of Brussels is more important than the capture of Kharkiv,” said the prime minister, referring to the Ukrainian city currently being targeted by Russia.

Tusk argued that if Poles go to the ballot, Poland will be able to maintain its independence and remain part of the European community. “Provided that we are as mature as we were 35 years ago on 4 June,” he said.

“Just as when we ended the Soviet occupation of Central Europe, now we are all focused on making Poland strong and united and making Europe strong and united,” Tusk said. “It is also a fight to prevent war from coming to Poland and the European Union.”

Tusk also hit out at his political opponents from Law and Justice (PiS), which ruled Poland from 2015 until December and is now the main opposition party.

He declared that the list of candidates PiS has put forward for the elections – who include two former ministers who were convicted of abuse of power but later pardoned by President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally – look more like “wanted lists”.

According to Tusk, 30,000 attended the rally in Warsaw’s historic Castle Square. City hall, which is under the control of KO, estimated 25,000-30,000 were present. However, analysis of aerial images by Onet, a leading news website, indicated that only around half that number were present.

Attendance is markedly lower than an event organised on the same anniversary by Tusk last year, while he was still in opposition, when hundreds of thousands of people took part.

PiS politicians criticised Tusk’s rally for the low turnout and accused him of lying and sowing hatred. One of the convicted ex-ministers standing in this week’s elections, Mariusz Kamiński, said that the event was characterised by “pure hatred and frustration”.

“Poor attendance and storytelling. This will no longer pass. The Polish people are not stupid. They were fooled on 15 October [at the parliamentary elections that brought Tusk to power], but they won’t fall for his lies again,” said former PiS minister Jacek Sasin.

The former prime minister in the PiS government, Mateusz Morawiecki, criticised Tusk for campaigning while many parts of Poland have been suffering this week from major flooding.

“The whole of Poland is struggling with storms and flooding,” he wrote on X. “And what is Donald Tusk doing? He is intensely active on Twitter and busy with the election campaign…When PiS was in power, the most important thing for us was the safety of Poles, not elections.”

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Main image credit: Dawid Zuchowicz / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.