Poland’s opposition led a massive pro-democracy demonstration in Warsaw on Sunday, prompted by widespread public uneasiness over a government-appointed commission set to investigate pro-Russian politicians and potentially prevent them from taking office.
The leader of the main opposition Civic Platform party, Donald Tusk, addressed the crowd flanked by Lech Wasa, former Polish president and leader of the Solidarity movement that helped topple the communist regime in the 1980s.
The demonstration was planned to mark the first anniversary of Poland’s post-communist elections in 1989, but the turnout was boosted by a political row over the anti-Russian committee, which President Andrzej Duda signed into law last Monday, before quickly backtracking and proposing various amendments to parliament for review.
Critics have dubbed the law “Lex Tusk” because its most prominent target may be Tusk, the former prime minister who is leading the centre-right opposition’s campaign to win a disputed national election this fall.
Many protesters traveled from outside the capital to join the Warsaw rally, some on buses provided by the Civic Platform. Smaller demonstrations were also held on Sunday in other Polish cities, as well as Berlin and Paris.
said Joanna Stankovic, who made the one-and-a-half-hour trip to Warsaw from Lodz.
The commission was proposed by the ruling Law and Justice party, whose founder Jaroslav Kaczynski has repeatedly accused Tusk of being too friendly with Moscow. The Law and Justice-led government claims the commission will help protect Poland from Russian interference during the election campaign and as Warsaw seeks to lead Western support for Kiev in its war against Moscow.
But one of Sunday’s protesters, engineer Piotr Urdzygowski, said “the government that claims to protect us from Russia actually wants Poland to have the same model country as Russia or Belarus,” where people can be arbitrarily detained and punished for speaking out against them. Government.
Many protesters waved Polish and European Union flags, as well as banners mocking Kaczynski, Duda and the ruling Law and Justice party. One poster read in English, “Don’t piss on Poland.” Bartosz Aroković, a politician with the Civic Platform, estimated that half a million people took part in the Warsaw protest, but this figure was not immediately confirmed by the police or other independent sources.
While the so-called Lex Tusk has further polarized Polish society and given new impetus to parties opposing PiS, some protesters said their priority remained other issues that divided Poland, particularly access to abortion and the rights of the LGBTQ community.
Student Paula Zarudzka, who wore a pro-abortion T-shirt, said she had participated in previous demonstrations to protect women’s rights. “What I feel is different now is that there is a greater sense of anger about everything this government has done, not just against women,” she said.
Donald Tusk speaking at the demonstration in Warsaw on Sunday © Wojtek Radwanski / AFP / Getty Images
Addressing the crowd, Tusk suggested that the upcoming elections should be seen by the electorate as as important as the 1989 elections that marked Poland’s return to democracy. He also drew an analogy between the struggle against communism and the resistance to the PiS government that came to power in 2015, when it defeated Civic Platform in an election.
Teacher Ilona Tutug said that she considers this year’s elections more important than the recent previous elections. “As far as respecting our constitution and our democracy is concerned, things are getting worse year after year,” she said.