Polish prosecutors seek charges against organisers of abortion protests for endangering public

Poland’s national public prosecutor has instructed his subordinates to seek charges against the organisers of mass protests that have broken out in response to a constitutional court ruling that introduces a near total ban on abortion.

Separately, the education minister has said that he may reduce funding for universities that have helped staff and students to take part in the protests.

The biggest protests since communism

The developments come after the seventh consecutive day of protests against last Thursday’s ruling. Police announced this morning that around 430,000 people attended 410 demonstrations across the country.

That makes them the biggest protests in Poland since the fall of communism in 1989, according to Wojciech Szacki, the head of the political department at Polityka Insight analysis centre.

The protests have so far been overwhelmingly peaceful. But there have been some clashes with police and with nationalists opposed to the protests, as well as cases of vandalism.

At yesterday’s protests, police detained 80 individuals for aggressive behaviour. It is not known how many were protesters and how many were nationalists who attacked demonstrators in Wrocław and Białystok. Police confirmed that one person had been detained in relation to an attack on a female journalist in Wrocław, reports her newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza.

Up to eight years in prison for “causing epidemiological threat”

Today it emerged that the national public prosecutor, Bogdan Święczkowski, has sent a letter to subordinate units instructing them on how to deal with the organisers of the protest. Święczkowski is second in command to the prosecutor general, Zbigniew Ziobro, who also serves as justice minister.

In his letter, seen by Onet and TVN24, Święczkowski writes that “every person organising an illegal demonstration or inciting participation in one should be assessed in the context of the prohibited act…of causing danger to the life and health of many people by causing an epidemiological threat”.

That is a crime which carries a prison sentence of between six months and eight years. Święczkowski adds that even simply calling for the organisation of demonstrations “may qualify as incitement to a crime”, which is punishable with up to two years in prison, reports Onet.

Święczkowski calls on prosecutors to “immediately undertake actions and issue procedural decisions” on potential cases. He orders them to keep him informed of proceedings, including when they make decisions not to launch them.

The main organisers of the protests have been Strajk Kobiet (Women’s Strike), a group that emerged during previous protests against a proposed abortion ban in 2016. But many other groups and individuals have been involved in organising the hundreds of demonstrations.

Święczkowski writes that the protests “clearly violate regulations introduced to prevent and combat the spread of COVID-19”, and that they therefore endanger not only participants, but “the life and health of the entire society”.

Poland is currently experiencing record and rapidly rising numbers of coronavirus infections. Today it reported its highest ever daily figures for both new cases (20,156) and deaths (301), although any effects of the protests, which began a week ago, would not yet be apparent in current figures.

Universities and teachers will face “consequences”

Separately, the education and science minister, Przemysław Czarnek, has warned universities that they face cuts in funding for facilitating participation in the abortion protests.

A number of universities have expressed support for the demonstrations. Some cancelled teaching yesterday to allow staff and students to take part in them. The University of Wrocław has also offered free legal assistance to any students “who find themselves in trouble in connection with participation in the protests”.

“This is scandalous, irresponsible behaviour by universities,” Czarnek yesterday told state broadcaster TVP. “Releasing students [from classes] to participate in these strikes exposes them directly to danger, to loss of life and health, and also their families…It is criminal activity.”

“Young people are in a period of rebellion; we went though this too,” said the minister. “The difference is that we were brought up in the spirit of authority. Teachers were authorities. We must return to that.”

Czarnek noted that, while Polish law gives universities a strong degree of autonomy, “where there is direct violation of the law” then the minister can take “far-reaching” action against them. “I will make appropriate decisions on this issue” soon, he promised.

“Let’s not forget that, as minister, I have the competence to allocate funds to universities for research,” Czarnek warned. “I have no doubts that in the ministry we will have to take into account what is happening at individual universities.”

In separate comments yesterday, Czarnek also said that there was evidence of some teachers encouraging schoolchildren to take part in the protests. He warned that there would be “consequences” for those who “expose children not only to ideological warfare, but also to dangers to their health”.

Czarnek claimed that the aim of the “left-liberal revolutionaries” behind the protests is to “overthrow the current government and eradicate Poland as we have known it for centuries”. His words echo those of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party’s leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, on Tuesday evening.

Czarnek, who was appointed to his position earlier this month, is known for his hardline views. He has been at the forefront of PiS’s campaign against “LGBT ideology”, which Czarnek claims “comes from the same roots as Nazism”.

The minister has also said that proponents of “LGBT ideology” are “not equal to normal people” and we should “stop listening to this idiocy about human rights or equality”.

Last week, after taking his post, Czarnek pledged to “fight the “dictatorship of left-liberal views” that he claims “dominated higher education” and have begun to “penetrate schools” as well. In his remarks to TVP yesterday, the minister repeated that there is “a dictatorship in academia” which shows “no tolerance for us Christians”.

Czarnek has also previously attended and spoken at a march organised by the National Radical Camp (ONR), an ultranationalist group that has been responsible this week for organising a “national brigade” of “political soldiers ready to defend national and Catholic values” from the abortion protesters.

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.