2023-10-01 15:20:58
“A decisive moment in the history of our homeland is coming. » These are the words that Donald Tusk, former Polish Prime Minister, described this Sunday’s demonstration. A million people, according to the town hall, gathered at the start of a large anti-government march in the center of Warsaw at the call of the opposition, 15 days before the legislative elections.
“When I see these hundreds of thousands of smiling faces, I feel that a decisive moment in the history of our homeland is coming,” said Donald Tusk, former Prime Minister and former President of the European Council, at the start of the march. became the leader of the centrist Civic Platform (PO) bloc.
Against the government’s Eurosceptic nationalists
The demonstration is intended to mobilize people from across the country, which has been governed for eight years by Eurosceptic nationalists. The “March of a Million Hearts”, as Mr. Tusk called it, started at 10:00 a.m., filling the main streets of the center of the capital with compact crowds. It will mark “one of the biggest events” in the modern history of Poland and will be part of “the biggest demonstrations in Europe in recent years”, assured Mr. Tusk.
“They will not intimidate us, they will not silence us. It is essential that all of Poland sees that no one is afraid of them anymore,” he declared on Thursday during a public meeting in Elblag (North), targeting the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.
On Sunday, PiS leaders are holding their own rally in the southern city of Katowice.
“Our freedom is reduced”
In Warsaw, the demonstrators, brandishing Polish and European flags and a small white and red heart – symbol of the centrist coalition – stuck to their chests, loudly proclaim their disagreement with the government. One of them, Kazimierz Figzal, said it took him seven hours to reach the capital from southwest Poland. “We are tired of what we are witnessing today. Our freedom is reduced. We want democracy, for our children and our grandchildren,” this 65-year-old man told AFP.
Speeches by opposition leaders are planned at the end of the march, around 1 p.m. Former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1983, Lech Walesa, had announced his participation.
The nationalist populist party at the top of voting intentions
Despite numerous conflicts with the European Union and accusations of attacks on the rule of law, PiS, the nationalist populist party of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, maintains a comfortable lead in the polls, with around 35% of voting intentions. , according to the polling institute IBRiS. The Civic Platform is in second position, supported by 27% of voters, according to the same study.
However, according to Tusk, polls commissioned by his party show that PiS’s lead has recently shrunk to just two percentage points. “Nothing is decided yet,” he said in Elblag, promising to hold the current authorities accountable at the end of the election. “Many of them will go to prison for theft, for violating the law and the Constitution,” he insisted.
Bartlomiej Piela came from Katowice, where a PiS rally is planned, to the capital, to participate in the opposition demonstration and protest against “what is happening in Poland”. “Breaking fundamental civil rights and the freedom of women to choose their way of life, pitting Poles against each other… I hope that the march will mobilize people to change this,” wishes this 29-year-old man.
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