The “great march” is to begin at noon. People from all over the country should drive to the Polish capital and join the demonstration that Donald Tusk called for in April: “Against inflation, theft and lies, for free elections and a democratic, European Poland.” June 4th is an important date for Poland. The first partially free elections were held on this day in 1989, marking the beginning of the end of the communist regime in Poland.
Now this Sunday is supposed to herald the end of the right-wing national PiS government. And it seems to be the government itself that is bringing more participants to the rally than expected. Donald Tusk, co-founder and chairman of the liberal-conservative citizens’ platform PO, is the PiS politicians’ favorite enemy. No one is showered with as much hatred as he is. And the former Prime Minister and former EU Council President is also quite controversial within the opposition. But with the so-called “Lex Tusk” he seems to be gaining new followers.
On Monday, President Andrzej Duda signed a law on the basis of which a commission of inquiry can be set up to identify and condemn Russian influences. The PiS calls it “anti-Putin law” for short. But one only has to look at the presentation of the law by PiS politicians to realize that it is actually intended to be an anti-Tusk law. Because with a photo of Tusk, the PiS illustrated their statements on this commission of inquiry at a press conference.
Organizers are expecting 300,000 demonstrators from across the country
Not only in Poland did critics speak of an undemocratic law that crossed all red lines. The US government and the EU Commission immediately condemned the project, and the European Parliament also dealt with it on Wednesday. President Andrzej Duda announced on Friday that he now wants to submit proposals for amendments to the law to the Sejm. But that didn’t calm the anger of his opponents.
The law on the commission of inquiry, whose verdicts can result in people being barred from public office, was the signal for the Polish opposition to join Tusk’s call for mass demonstrations on Sunday. The Citizens’ Platform (PO) is now expecting around 300,000 people. They should come from all over the country. Both the PO and the Nowa Lewica (New Left) party are organizing buses, and several opposition mayors across Poland have called for people to travel to Warsaw.
But it shouldn’t just be a march by the opposition parties. The civil rights organization Akcja Demokracja announced early on that it would join. The same applies to the Committee for the Protection of Democracy (KOD), which had repeatedly protested against the government after the PiS election victory in 2015. The nationwide women’s strike “Strajk Kobiet”, which was founded in response to the strict abortion law, also wants to take part.
A PiS video draws parallels between demonstrators and National Socialists
“Actually, everyone who has been insulted and attacked by the PiS over the past eight years comes,” says Jakub Kocjan. The law doctoral student is one of the chairmen of Akcja Demokracja. “With the Lex Tusk, the PiS has shown that there are no longer any limits for them,” says Kocjan. He sees his country slipping into an autocracy. “These elections will not be fair,” he says, referring to the Lex Tusk, but also to the public media, which serve as the government’s propaganda tool.
A tweet this week showed just how far the PiS had left all rules of decency behind. A short video accompanied by photos of the German death camp at Auschwitz, where the Germans murdered around a million people during World War II, suggests that all participants in the Tusk demonstration were compared to German Nazis. The management of the memorial protested.
Activist Kocjan hopes the demonstration will bring “energy” and encourage people to vote in the autumn elections. Because many, especially younger people and women are tired and disillusioned, they just want to stay away from politics. They need to be mobilized.
The demonstrators are already expecting counteractions. One of the PiS leaders said on Polish radio on Friday that the Tusk demonstration was “an attempt to offend a large section of society”. He described the action as a “threat”. Tusk was on the wrong side of history on June 4, 1989. The fact that he uses this date can be understood to mean that he wants to restore the communist People’s Republic.