Norwegian state TV apologises for calling Polish Independence March “Nazi”

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Norway’s state broadcaster NRK has apologised for describing this week’s march in Warsaw celebrating Independence Day as “Nazi”, admitting that the term was a “mistake”.

On Tuesday, the annual Independence March passed through Warsaw, with around 150,000 people taking part.

The event was founded 15 years ago by nationalist groups and continues to be organised by them, though it now attracts a wide range of participants, including many mainstream conservatives. Among those to attend this year’s event was right-wing President Karol Nawrocki.

However, in its news coverage of the event, NRK featured an on-screen label saying “Nazi marches in Poland”.

The use of such a term is particularly sensitive for Poles given that their country suffered perhaps more than any other under Nazi-German occupation in World War Two.

Around 6 million Polish citizens, 17% of the prewar population, were killed in the war, a higher proportion than in any other country. Poland also never had a collaborationist government, unlike many other European countries, including Norway.

NRK’s description of the march prompted anger in Poland. Ryszard Czarnecki, a politician from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, Poland’s main opposition, called it “anti-Polish propaganda”. He said he felt personally offended as he had attended the march with his teenage son.

Moja Norwegia, a news service aimed at Norway’s large Polish immigrant population, reports that there was outrage among the Polish community and that Polish organisations had been issuing complaints to NRK, the Norwegian Media Ethics Commission, and the country’s Broadcasting Council.

The Polish embassy in Oslo also contacted NRK, asking it to issue a correction. On Friday, in a statement issued to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), the head of news at NRK, Ole Eivind Henden, apologised on behalf of the station.

“The term used is not NRK’s ​​assessment of what this march was,” he wrote. “Both our nations were under Nazi occupation. It is easy to understand the feelings such a term evokes. The term ‘Nazi marches’ was unjustified and NRK apologises for using it.”

In 2017, former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who was then leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group in the European Parliament, caused similar controversy by describing the Independence March as “60,000 fascists marching in the streets of Warsaw – neo-Nazis, white supremacists”.

That prompted criticism from Poland’s then-President Andrzej Duda, who called the remarks “absolutely scandelous”. Kosma Złotowski, a PiS MEP, said the comments were “extremely offensive” and called on Verhofstadt to apologise.

A Polish nationalist activist launched legal action against Verhofstadt, accusing him of defamation and insult. In 2019, a Warsaw court requested that the European Parliament strip Verhofstadt’s immunity to face the claim.

However, in 2020, an overwhelming majority of MEPs, 696, voted against waiving his immunity, with only 59 in favour, PiS MEPs among them.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: TG Sokół Lublin/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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.