Annual Polish Independence March passes through Warsaw

Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!

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.

The annual march held in Warsaw to mark Poland’s Independence Day has passed through the city without major incident. This year’s event took place amid heightened security following the deadly terrorist attack in Kraków just four days earlier.

A huge column of people, including President Karol Nawrocki, marched through the city amid a sea of white-and-red flags. The event, which is organised by nationalist groups, also acted as a display of unity among the right-wing opposition ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.

Figures from the more liberal government, as always, avoided the march. Prime Minister Donald Tusk celebrated Independence Day hundreds of kilometres away in the city of Szczecin, where he issued an invitation to the opposition-aligned Nawrocki to visit his home for talks.

This year’s Independence March was held under the slogan “Polak w Polsce gospodarzem”, which translates roughly as “Poles are masters in their own country”.

The slogan was chosen to “emphasise our opposition to foreign influences on Poland and underscore that Poland should be a nation-state without mass immigration”, said Rafał Buca, the march’s spokesman. “In Poland, Poles should rule – not some foreigners, not the European Union, not big corporations.”

On the morning of the march, the organisers shared an image showing Tusk as a puppet of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “Time to cut the strings of foreign influence,” they declared.

The march is mainly organised by individuals associated with Confederation (Konfederacja), a far-right group that sits among the opposition in parliament. But it is attended by a wide range of people, from the mainstream right through to the radical right.

Leading figures from other opposition parties, including the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), centre-right Development Plus (Rozwój Plus) and radical-right Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP), were present, as well as Nawrocki, who last year became the first sitting Polish president to attend the march.

A member of the march’s organising committee, Marcin Osowski, told broadcaster WNET that around half a million people were at today’s march. However, the municipal authorities have not yet announced an official estimate of attendance, which is always much lower than the figure claimed by the organisers.

Last year, the organisers said that 300,000 people had attended, while the city – which is under the rule of Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO) party – put the figure at 100,000.

The opposition aimed to show a united front amid their ongoing protests against the recent takeover of the constitutional court by a group of government-backed judges, and ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections, at which they hope to unseat Tusk’s government.

“It’s about showing our strength and, at the same time, for this march to be a springboard for the election campaign,” said Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of PIS, during the march, quoted by the Niezależna news website. “Unity is important.”

Meanwhile, one of the leaders of Confederation, Krzysztof Bosak, told the crowd in a speech that, “while we have different experiences and views, under the white-and-red flag we form one community”.

“Next year, we must turn this community into an election victory…We must remove the current clique from power and form a pro-Polish government,” he declared. “We do not accept the violent takeover of state institutions. We demand respect for the law.”

However, Confederation’s other main leader, Sławomir Mentzen, shared a picture of himself at the march in front of a banner showing images of both Tusk and Kaczyński crossed out, alongside the word “Reset”.

While Bosak’s nationalist faction of Confederation is seen as more amenable to the idea of working with PiS to form a potential future coalition government, Mentzen’s libertarian faction is less enthusiastic about the idea.

In the past, the march has sometimes seen violence, with participants clashing with police. However, in recent years it has generally passed peacefully, and that was again the case this time.

The city’s mayor, Rafał Trzaszkowski, who is a deputy leader of KO, said on Wednesday afternoon that, other than the illegal use of pyrotechnics (such as a flare held up by Mentzen), the march was proceeding without incident.

Local authorities in Warsaw had put in place additional security measures following Saturday’s terrorist attack in Kraków, in which a 24-year-old Polish man, Michał Oksiński, killed six people and injured over a dozen more by shooting an AR-15 rifle from his car.

Oksiński’s rampage was quickly brought to a halt in a shootout with armed police, and he died from his injuries on Monday. On Tuesday, the justice minister revealed that evidence uncovered so far had shown “strong traces of right-wing extremism” in Oksiński’s activity.

Tusk, meanwhile, celebrated Independence Day in the city of Szczecin in northeast Poland.

“All of us, without exception, are responsible for ensuring that Poland remains strong, secure, free, and independent forever,” said the prime minister. “Everyone who holds Poland in their hearts must understand that independence, freedom and a secure republic are a common good.”

Tusk noted that, since the recent crisis around the constitutional court broke out, Nawrocki has refused his offer to meet and discuss how to find a solution to a crisis that has pitted judges appointed under the former PiS government against those chosen by the current ruling coalition.

The prime minister today renewed that offer, inviting Nawrocki and his family to visit Tusk’s home in the build-up to Christmas. “We must be able to discuss things together, without bitterness, without hatred,” said the prime minister.

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: Przemysław Keler/KPRP

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.