Massive Demonstrations Erupt Against Poland’s Conservative Government

In a mammoth show of opposition to the governing conservative party ahead of the general election in October, hundreds of thousands of people marched through Warsaw on Sunday. The demonstration was a reminder of Poland’s rejection of Communist Party rule several decades ago and was organized by the rivals of the ruling party. The Law and Justice party, which holds deeply conservative beliefs, has regularly referred to its political opponents as Russian agents and Communist sympathizers. Recently, the party pushed through legislation establishing a commission to investigate Russian influence and bar individuals from holding public office for up to a decade if they are found to have succumbed to such alleged influence. The move has been denounced by the opposition and international organizations such as the United States and the European Union, who fear that the legislation, known as “Lex Tusk,” is aimed at curtailing the political opposition.

Large protests also took place in Krakow, Szczecin, and other cities governed by opposition parties, which tend to be stronger in urban areas than in the countryside.

The leader of the Civic Platform, Donald Tusk, delivered a speech to the protests on Sunday, accusing the governing party of rolling back democracy and steering Poland away from Europe. He likened the upcoming election to the poll of June 4, 1989, the nation’s first free election since 1945, which put an end to communist rule. He added that the slogan of Solidarity, the trade union movement that led the fight against Moscow’s imposed Communist rule decades ago, was “we will not be divided or destroyed.”

Lech Walesa, former Solidarity leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, also addressed the crowd. Despite the fact that he became Poland’s first post-war president, he was later denounced by Law and Justice as an agent of the Communist-era secret police. Warsaw’s city hall, controlled by political opponents of the government, claimed that the turnout was about half a million. The demonstration was likely one of the most significant anti-government protests since the 1980s street protests in support of Solidarity, even if the turnout may have been exaggerated. State-controlled TVP Info claimed that the number of attendees was 100,000 at most and focused its minimal coverage of the protest on obscenities voiced by some protesters, a tactic often used by pro-government media to portray critics of Law and Justice as infidels who disrespect the Roman Catholic Church.

Law and Justice has been in power since 2015. Although most opinion polls predict that it is likely to win more seats than Civic Platform in the forthcoming parliamentary election, the party could have difficulty forming a stable government since it may fail to secure an overall majority.