With a mass demonstration in Warsaw and smaller commemorative events across the country, Poland celebrated its 100th Independence Day on Sunday. More than two hundred thousand people had followed the call of President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki for an "independence march" in the capital, the Home Office said in the late afternoon. On television, the top politicians were seen in front of a sea of people with white-red Polish national flags.
A dispute over the march had for days overshadowed the celebration of the anniversary of the restoration of Poland's independence on November 11, 1918. Critics accused the national-conservative ruling party PiS of having supported nationalist and right-wing groups. The state-organized march was organized in the short term instead of a temporarily banned nationalist demonstration. At the end the participants demonstrated together.
In 1918, the long division of Poland by Prussia, Austria-Hungary and Russia had been overcome. At Pilsudski Square in Warsaw, therefore, Duda and Morawiecki had come to the head of a solemn assembly Sunday afternoon to sing the national anthem. Since Saturday night, thousands of people had attended religious services and commemorative ceremonies to commemorate the independence of the country.