Annual right-wing Independence Day march passes through Warsaw

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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.

Large crowds attended the annual march in Warsaw marking Independence Day. The event, which has sometimes seen disorder in previous years, passed peacefully, though police reported detaining dozens of people for offences including the possession of drugs, weapons and pyrotechnics.

Today’s Independence March was the first to take place since a new, more liberal government took power at the end of last year. Many banners expressed opposition to the government and the march had a larger-than-usual contingent from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, Poland’s main opposition.

Among them was PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, who was attending the march for only the second time. Previously, he had taken part only in 2018, when the event was given special status by the then PiS government to mark the centenary of Poland regaining independence in 1918.

Warsaw city hall – which is under the authority of the centrist Civic Platform (PO) – estimates that 90,000 people took part in the march today. However, the organisers of the event claim that attendance was 250,000.

The Independence March is organised by nationalist groups but draws participants from across the right-wing spectrum. This year’s version took place under the slogan “The power of Great Poland is us”, a line from a song that is the anthem of All-Polish Youth (Młodzież Wszechpolska), one of the far-right groups behind the event.

Before setting off on the march, participants gathered at Dmowski Roundabout in central Warsaw, lighting red flares and singing the national anthem.

“We will not allow our independence to be taken away, we will not allow our freedom to be taken away,” Krzysztof Bosak, one of the leaders of the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party, told the crowd. “In this new political context…Poles need to unleash their power, to show that we are united.”

At the end of the march, Jerzy Kwaśniewski, head of the right-wing legal organisation Ordo Iuris, warned from the stage that “the European Union wants to take over Poland…They want to take away our sovereignty and destroy our independence”, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

While PiS figures were not invited to speak at the march, Kaczyński delivered a similar message of unity to Bosak at a press conference beforehand.

“We are going [to the march] with one intention above all: we want the patriotic camp to be united and march together, but also to march together in political undertakings that are needed to change the current state of Poland,” he said, quoted by the Do Rzeczy weekly.

“We may differ in some matters, but in these matters, we should be completely united,” he continued. “It is about what is happening in Poland today, what threatens both the Polish state and the Polish nation, family, society. It is about the complete destruction of the rule of law.”

During its time in power between 2015 and 2023, the PiS government was sympathetic towards the march and often defended it from accusations that it was an extremist event. However, the march organisers have sought to distance themselves from PiS.

This year’s event saw a number of banners attacking Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his government. As always, anti-European Union messages were also present. Broadcaster TVN reports that the head of All-Polish Youth, Marcin Osowski, participated in the burning of an EU flag.

However, whereas at times in the past, the event has led to disorder, including clashes between participants and police, this year saw no major incidents.

“The situation on the streets of Warsaw looks very calm,” said Jarosław Misztal, director of Warsaw’s municipal security centre. The authorities noted numerous incidents involving the use of pyrotechnics – which in theory are prohibited but are regularly used at the event – but fewer than in previous years.

The police announced that by 2 p.m., the start time of the march, they had already detained 75 people, including for possession of weapons (such as knives, telescopic batons and brass knuckles), flares and narcotics.

The mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, a deputy leader of Tusk’s centrist PO party, is an opponent of the march. This year, city hall initially rejected an application for the event to take place, saying that it was submitted incorrectly.

However, eventually, the situation was resolved and the march went ahead legally, though Trzaskowski warned today that he would seek to dissolve it if any laws were broken, including the display of symbols prohibited by law.

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: Slawomir Kaminski / 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.