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According to Warsaw City Hall, 50,000 nationalists marched through the streets of the Polish capital on November 11, 2019. REUTERS / Kacper Pempel

Several tens of thousands of nationalist protesters marched on the streets of Warsaw on Monday, November 11, on the occasion of Poland's National Day.

With our correspondent in Warsaw, Thomas Giraudeau

Waving the national red and white flag, several tens of thousands of nationalist protesters - 50,000 according to the town hall - participated this Monday in Warsaw at the Independence March.

In Poland, November 11th is National Day, marking the country's return to independence at the end of the First World War. For ten years, the nationalists parade that day in the streets. Today, they are reinforced by the results of the recent parliamentary elections. The extreme right, opposed to the ultraconservatives of the ruling Law and Justice Party, returned to the Polish Assembly after 12 years of absence.

At the beginning of the march, on the top of a building, opponents of the nationalists hung a huge Polish flag with a swastika and symbols of far-right organizations crossed with red. " We are accused of being Nazis, fascists. But that's not true, defends Adam Przeboj. We are tolerant. However, I would like our nationalist MPs to vote against abortion. And I would like the laws to be made by the Poles, not by the European Union. "

Unlike the vast majority of Poles, many nationalists want to leave the EU. A Union flag is burned during the march. The Confederation, the far-right party, also defends a Catholic Poland, without abortion, against LGBT people.

On these topics, the ultra-conservative party in power in Warsaw, Law and Justice, does not go far enough, says Barbara Stokovska, a septuagenarian: " I like the program of the Confederation. They are young, they are patriots. They do not want foreign immigration here. For me, the PiS, Law and Justice, is not at all right, it is socialist. He gives our money to others. My taxes are used to pay family allowances. "

The PiS has implemented a massive program of benefits for all families. Criticized by the ultraliberals and a part of the far right.