The Poland takes to the streets against the high cost of living and “the lies of power and the corruption“. In 500mila they demonstrated on Sunday at Warsaw while the country is getting ever closer to the political elections next autumn. And the requests go towards a greater one democracy, tolerance and recognition of social rightsas requested byEuropean Union which has repeatedly come into conflict with the far-right government on the Rule of law.
“The first thing to do to start the road to victory is to figure out how many we are”, said the historical leader of Solidarnosc Lech Walesa, the first democratically elected president of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize winner in the opening speech of the march. And then the organizers and the capital’s town hall did the math: half a million participants, probably the highest number since the end of communism. It was the one who asked the Poles to take to the streets Donald TuskPrime Minister of Poland between 2007 and 2014 and former president of the European Council between 2014 and 2019, he has now become the leader of the largest opposition party. These days Tusk seems to be more than ever in the crosshairs of the conservative Pis party Jaroslaw Kaczynskito the government, which wanted a law, already accepted by Parliament, which is not by chance called by the media ‘lex anti-Tusk’. It is a text that aims to exclude from public life the political exponents responsible for “Russian influences” on Polish internal security between the years 2007 and 2022. The president Andrzej Duda he signed it last week but then – following harsh criticism, starting with that of the American president Joe Biden he was born in European Parliament – backtrack, table a series of amendments.
“This is my oath before you: I will lead you to victory” in the upcoming elections, Tusk told the crowd at the end of the demonstration, which finally gathered in the Royal Castle Square, with hundreds of Polish and European flags. The former premier is also committed to “a reckoning” arguing that today’s demonstration has given new hope to Polish society “despite the divisions sown by power in recent years”.
The date of June 4 was not chosen by chance, given that in Poland it is celebrated Freedom and civil rights daycoinciding with the anniversary of the first partially free elections won by Solidarnosc. But beyond any symbolism, the prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki he criticized the protests, comparing them to a “circus” and stating that it makes him “a little funny when the old foxes who have been in politics for years organize an anti-government march and present it as a spontaneous civic protest”.