Around 500,000 people marched through the streets of Poland earlier this month to protest against the country’s right-wing government.
The huge rally occurred on June 4 in downtown Warsaw, where hundreds of thousands of Polish people marched against the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.
The march was called by Donald Tusk, former Polish prime minister and former president of the European Council, who is now leading his Civic Platform (PO) party in a bid to defeat PiS in an election later this fall.
“You’re all here because you have just believed we can win,” Tusk told the crowd. “Here’s my pledge to you today: We are going to win this election and hold PiS accountable.”
Poles were holding up white-and-red flags and anti-government placards, including the colloquially known ones with eight asterisks, denoting the Polish for “f*** PiS.”
Barbara Dec, 26, and her grandmother left their hometown of Zielona Gora early in the morning and traveled seven hours on a bus organized by Civic Platform to protest.
“I am afraid to have children in Poland,” Dec told the Associated Press. “Women have lost the right to have an abortion even when the fetus is terminally ill, and some women have died.”
The march took place just days after Polish President Andrzej Duda signed off on a bill creating a special commission to look into Russian influence on the country’s security
Should it become law, the commission will have extreme authority, including the ability to impose a 10-year ban on holding public office on anyone found to be making political decisions while under the influence of Russia.
The bill has drawn criticism from the opposition, which thinks that Tusk might be targeted by these sanctions given that he is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s principal allies in Poland.
According to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, Tusk’s Civic Platform is currently trailing PiS, but the ruling party still does not have enough support to guarantee it a majority in the next parliament.
In 2023, PiS’s popularity declined as a result of double-digit inflation and a slowing economy. Later this year, both are anticipated to soften, perhaps giving the ruling party an opportunity to outperform the opposition and win an unprecedented third straight term in office.
