Thousands join Solidarity trade union protest against EU green policies in 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.

Thousands of people have joined a protest in Warsaw against the European Union’s green policies, organised by Solidarity, Poland’s largest trade union, and supported by the right-wing opposition and opposition-aligned President Karol Nawrocki.

During the march, at which many anti-government banners were visible, Solidarity’s leader Piotr Duda criticised Prime Minister Donald Tusk and warned that Poland has become a German “colony”.

“God bless you, Poland! You have finally woken up, my beloved homeland!” Duda told the crowd. “Someone is trying to steal our country and we can’t let that happen!”

When the march passed the presidential palace, Duda stopped to express thanks to Nawrocki for recently launching an effort to organise a national referendum on rejecting the EU’s green policies, keeping a promise he made to Solidarity during his election campaign last year.

However, the president’s proposal requires approval from the Senate, where Tusk’s pro-EU ruling coalition has a majority.

“We, as citizens, as Poles, demand this referendum,” declared Duda. “However, seeing what’s happening in our country, how they are trampling on the law, trampling on the constitution, we can expect the worst from them. They will serve their master, Donald Tusk.”

Solidarity, which led resistance to Poland’s communist regime in the 1980s, today has close links to the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party that ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023 and is now in opposition. Last year, the trade union endorsed Nawrocki, the PiS-backed candidate, in the presidential elections.

In March, PiS called for Poland to unilaterally withdraw from the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), which PiS argues significantly increases energy costs for Polish households and businesses.

Tusk’s government has warned there is no way to leave ETS without either incurring large, ongoing fines or leaving the EU altogether. It has instead sought to persuade the European Commission and other member states to soften the impact of the system.

Many PiS figures attended today’s protest. “We, together with the people of Solidarity, declare to [European Commission President] Ursula Von der Leyen that we do not accept your climate religion…which is destroying Europe, destroying Poland,” declared PiS deputy leader Przemysław Czarnek, quoted by broadcaster RMF.

Nawrocki’s deputy chief of staff, Paweł Szefernaker, also took to stage alongside Duda, thanking the crowd on behalf of the president for “fighting against the [EU] Green Deal”.

The far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), another opposition group strongly opposed to EU green policies, likewise had a strong presence at the march.

“We must be united, just like the workers in 1980,” Duda told broadcaster Republika. “We may differ in many ways, but we all want the best for our homeland and we will not allow it to be stolen from us.”

He warned that the EU is under German domination and, if things do not change, Poland “will continue to be a colony and Germany’s footrest”, repeating arguments often used by the right-wing opposition.

As well as its demand for a climate referendum, Solidarity also used today’s protest to call for, among other things, a halt to collective staff layoffs, the indexation of public sector wages, and the protection of Polish agriculture from EU trade deals with South America and Ukraine.

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 Kuba Atys / 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.