Demonstrations in Poland: mass protests in a depressed mood

According to a ruling by the Constitutional Court, tens of thousands take to the streets in Poland. You are calling for the country to remain in the EU. The government is trying to calm down. But the uncertainty is deep.

In Warsaw, the spacious Schlossplatz on the edge of the old town, which had been rebuilt after the war, was filled with people in the early evening, while other participants poured in; many waved the blue EU flags. There was a rather quiet, depressed mood, interrupted by the occasional chant that vulgarly cursed the PIS party or called for “we stay in the EU”.

Weak loudspeakers meant that the appearances broadcast live on private television could hardly be heard on the protest stage. Donald Tusk naturally received special attention: the former President of the EU Council of Member States had returned to Polish domestic politics a few months ago and had temporarily taken over the largest opposition party, the right-wing liberal Civic Platform. In Warsaw, Tusk, who himself had sparked the nationwide demonstrations with a protest call, shouted as soon as the Constitutional Court had ruled:

A group of actors who have put on judges’ robes have decided, on behalf of a party leader, to lead our fatherland out of the European Union. These handful of people do not shy away from any lie, not even from the fact that the Polish constitution is in conflict with the EU. We take the truth for granted, but all Poland should hear it. Pseudo-laws, pseudo-judgments that break our constitution and European law. We defend the constitution, we defend the republic from those who authorize it.

The court gives national law priority over EU law

In fact, an irregular reorganization of the Constitutional Court was at the very beginning of the so-called judicial reforms in Poland; The PiS government overlooked a judgment of the court in the old form that rejected its own renovation. Since then, the court has been considered biased. It is hardly active any more and if, as with the most recent question of legal precedence, it is more at the instigation of representatives from the government camp.

Nonetheless, the judgment on EU law found approval beyond the PiS camp, for example to the right of the ruling party, where PiS has grown into a serious political competitor with the “Confederation” party – a reservoir of nationalists, radical librarians and colorful personalities. Most recently, this group also won survey approval because it binds opponents of the corona policy. The constitutional court ruling met with approval there. Nationalist leader Robert Bakiewicz said: “Polish law takes precedence over European law. This is how it is in Germany, France and many other EU countries, and we are demanding that too. Poland is sovereign and we want to keep this sovereignty.”

Right-wing national counter-demonstrators

Extremely right-wing groups had called for a counter-demonstration and at times drowned out the appearances on the speaker’s stage in front of the liberal opponents of the constitutional court ruling. An emotional moment was reached when a very old veteran of the Warsaw uprising against the German occupiers spoke up there, was drowned out – and then addressed the right-wing counter-demonstrators behind the speaker’s stage: “Be quiet, stupid man. Be quiet, You bully. I am a soldier who remembers how blood flowed and my comrades died. I also shout out on their behalf, no one will lead me out of my fatherland or out of Europe, because Europe is my mother too. ”

Politicians of the PiS party commented on the protests and especially Donald Tusk’s appearance on the Internet that evening. Tenor: The Polexit was an invention of a weak opposition that could not think of anything else. Poland remains a member of the EU, only it would represent its own interests in the Union today.