Poland’s opposition hopes that the government’s new law will drive tens of thousands of citizens onto the streets today. It could result in leading opposition politician Tusk being banned from politics for years.
Donald Tusk promises a “sea of white and red flags”. They will “offer them public advice like they’ve never seen it before”.
The former Polish prime minister and now the most important candidate of the Polish opposition called for the “March of June 4th” through Warsaw. If Tusk has his way, this Sunday will be a demonstration of power by the opposition.
In Poland, a new parliament will be elected in late autumn and so far the ruling PiS party has dominated the debate. The opposition parties are primarily busy reacting – to the generous financial promises made by the PiS and to the campaign critical of Germany and the EU that has been running for months and the accusation that DTusk is an agent of German interests.
The march through Warsaw’s city center is now intended to bring about a turning point. The opposition wants to show its presence, appear combative and determined, because according to polls, the election is still open. Several tens of thousands of participants are expected, some estimates speak of more than 100,000.
Controversial Auschwitz spot
The PiS party is therefore making every effort to discredit the demonstration in advance. An online spot in particular caused criticism. In the film, the march is associated with the Auschwitz concentration camp.
The Polish journalist Tomasz Lis, a well-known critic of the PiS, had previously tweeted that “a chamber” would also be found for President Andrzej Duda and the PiS chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski – a formulation that was widely understood to refer to gas chambers. Lis later apologized that he meant a prison cell.
However, the fact that the PiS included this reference to Auschwitz in its commercial is considered a major breach of taboo and has brought criticism not least from the Auschwitz Memorial and from President Duda himself.
A law becomes a problem for the PiS
In fact, it is above all the PiS-led government itself that could attract the greatest interest to the march. The reason for this is the controversial so-called “Lex Tusk”. Earlier this week, President Duda said in a televised address that he would sign a law investigating Russian influence on Polish politics.
According to this, a special commission is to determine whether in the years from 2007 – i.e. exactly from the government of the current opposition candidate Tusk – Russia was able to influence Polish politics. Among other things, Tusk is accused of gas supply contracts that are unfavorable for Poland.
The Commission is to be appointed by Parliament, have court-like powers and be prosecutor and judge at the same time. It could revoke administrative decisions retrospectively, but above all punish administrative staff and politicians for allegedly pro-Russian actions.
According to the law, accused persons can be barred from public office for up to ten years. That would be the end of any political career. And the text of the law already stipulates when the commission is to present its first report: on September 17, the anniversary of the Soviet attack on Poland in 1939.
Discernible attack on Donald Tusk
Critics call the law “Lex Tusk” because it is a clearly recognizable attempt to take Tusk, PiS’s strongest opponent, out of the running or at least to damage it before the elections. The EU Commission was concerned, as was the US Ambassador to Poland.
A number of Polish lawyers doubt that the law is constitutional, including 17 former constitutional judges, who in an open letter not only criticize the “Lex Tusk”, but also fundamentally complain about the cuts in the independence of Polish courts by the PiS. And so the “Lex Tusk” turned the opposition’s campaign march on June 4 into a demonstration for democracy in Poland.
The President backtracks
The fierce criticism of the project also seems to have surprised the Polish government. It was initially said from those close to Duda that the President wanted to explain the law to his US counterpart Joe Biden in a telephone call.
On Friday morning Duda was back in front of the cameras. Just two days after the law went into effect, the President attempted to defuse the special commission. He will propose to Parliament that the Commission should be made up exclusively of experts, that an appeal be made before the regular courts after a verdict and – which should be decisive – to leave it at recommendations.
The possibility of a penalty, the ten-year exclusion from politics, should be cashed in. According to Duda, the commission itself serves the interests of Poland and should come.
Tusk smiled as he watched a parliamentary debate on a law investigating Russian influence in Poland – did he suspect it would be a boomerang for PiS?
Memory of 1989
The PiS party and the president close to it were in a panic, which was widely commented on afterwards. Attempting to attack the opposition could backfire on the national conservatives.
And not only the PiS has a knack for historically charged data. Because it is no coincidence that the protest march through Warsaw will take place on June 4th. In 1989, the first semi-free elections in Poland since the Second World War were held on this day. For the first time, Poles were able to freely elect at least some of the deputies – it was the end of the dictatorship.
The Polish opposition parties want to connect with this feeling this Sunday – above all Tusk.