Anti-government protesters will gather in Warsaw, Poland, on Sunday, October 1, for the “March of Million Hearts.” PHOTO. SLAWOMIR KAMINSKI / AGENCJA / AGENCJA WYBORCZA.PL VIA Portal
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in central Warsaw on Sunday, October 1, at the start of a large anti-government march. “When I see these hundreds of thousands of smiling faces, I feel that a crucial moment in the history of our homeland is approaching,” said the leader of the centrist Civic Platform (PO) bloc, Donald Tusk, at the opening of the march.
The “March of a Million Hearts,” as Mr. Tusk, former prime minister and former chairman of the European Council, called it, began at midday. According to him, it will be “one of the biggest events” in Poland’s modern history and one of the “biggest demonstrations in Europe in recent years.”
“They will not intimidate us, they will not silence us. It is important that the whole of Poland sees that no one is afraid of them anymore,” Tusk said at a public meeting on Thursday in Elblag in the north of the country, targeting the Law and Justice party (PiS), which is in power is eight years.
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“Our freedom is restricted”
From the early hours of Sunday morning, participants from all over Poland gathered in Warsaw. Kazimierz Figzal says it took him seven hours to reach the capital from the southwest of the country.
“We are tired of what we are experiencing today. Our freedom is restricted. “We want democracy, for our children and our grandchildren,” said the 65-year-old, waving the flags of Poland and the European Union (EU).
Former president and 1983 Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa announced he would take part in the march, as would several leaders of opposition parties. “We know what you fear most: cooperation within the opposition,” Wlodzimierz Czarzasty, co-leader of the New Left party, told Deputy Prime Minister and PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
A demonstrator waves a European and a Polish flag on the occasion of the “March of a Million Hearts” in Warsaw on October 1, 2023. KACPER PEMPEL / Portal Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers In Poland, the risky bet is a divided democratic opposition
Despite numerous conflicts with the EU and accusations of undermining the rule of law, Kaczynski’s populist-nationalist party is comfortably in the lead in the polls with around 35% of voting intentions, according to the polling institute IBRiS. According to the same study, Donald Tusk’s coalition is in second place, supported by 27% of voters.
However, according to Tusk, surveys commissioned by his party show that the Law and Justice party’s lead has recently shrunk to just two percentage points. “Nothing has been decided yet,” he told the crowd gathered in Elblag, promising to hold the current authorities accountable at the end of the vote. “Many of them will go to prison for theft, for violations of the law and the Constitution,” he stressed.
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On Sunday, PiS leaders are holding their own rally in the southern city of Katowice. Bartlomiej Piela traveled in reverse gear from Katowice to the capital to attend the opposition rally and protest against “what is happening in Poland”. “Breaking basic civil rights and women’s freedom to choose their way of life, pitting Poles against each other… I hope the march will mobilize people to change this,” the 29-year-old man hopes.
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