The march of Independence Day of Poland focused this year on Warsaw a more than 100,000 peopleheaded by the president of the country, the ultranationalist Karol Nawrocki, and between proclamations hostile to the prime minister, the liberal Donald Tusk. “We will never again be a colony of anyone. I will never allow them to treat us like pets that only repeat what other countries dictate,” Nawrocki proclaimed, before a spectacular display of flags, pyrotechnics and national symbols and allusions to Tusk’s pro-European government.
“We are not going to cede our sovereignty to foreign institutions and agencies of the European Union,” the president added. Nawrocki came to power last August, after having won the presidential election as the candidate of the ultranationalist party Law and Justice (PiS). Nawrocki From the presidency, he exercises a systematic blockade of Tusk’s reformsaccording to the line set by his predecessor at the head of the State, Andrzej Duda.
The prime minister’s government, a broad-spectrum coalition, has added one crisis after another since its electoral victory a year ago. It is weakened, in part by its internal divisions, but also by the frustration generated by the blockade exercised by the presidency. Tusk has failed to repeal controversial reforms, such as the judiciary implemented by the PiS, in the period in which it controlled the presidency and the head of the Government. Nor has it managed to liberalize the abortionpractically prohibited except in exceptional cases, after this having been one of his promises in the campaign that led his European bloc to victory.
The European response
While Nawrocki exhibited his convening power in Warsaw, together with the PiS leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynskiand other figures of Polish ultranationalism, Tusk gave them the counterpart from the port city of Gdansk. There the prime minister recalled that on November 11 It is the Independence Day “of all Poles” and warned that “no one has a monopoly on patriotism”.
On November 11, Unity Day is commemorated in Poland, achieved in 1918. It is usually a day of political confrontation, beyond the current rivalry represented by the complex cohabitation between President Nawrocki and the head of the Government Tusk. The march of ultranationalism has led to riots and confrontations on previous occasions.
The day began with a formal offering to the heroes of independence, followed by a mass in their honor and another ceremony at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, to then proceed to the march of ultranationalism. In the middle of the afternoon, a few hours after the demonstration began in the center of Warsaw, the capital’s mayor’s office reported some isolated incidents and boos to representatives of the Tusk Government at institutional events, but without notable altercations.
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