Hundreds of thousands of Poles took to the streets of Warsaw on Sunday 4 June to demonstrate against the populist nationalist government in power, just a few months before the general elections this autumn.

"City Hall estimates (turnout) at 500,000 at the moment," Jan Grabiec, spokesman for the organizers of the march, which appears to be the largest in the country since the fall of communism in 1989, told AFP.

Coming from all over Poland, the demonstrators – wearing the Polish colours white and red and those of the European Union (EU) – responded to the call of the leader of the main centrist opposition party (Civic Platform, PO), former head of the European Council Donald Tusk, to protest against "the high cost of living, fraud and lies, in favour of democracy, free elections and the EU".

Pierwszym krokiem do zrzucenia niewoli jest być odważnym, aby być wolnym. Pierwszym krokiem do zwycięstwa jest poznać się na własnej sile.

Jesteśmy tutaj dzisiaj, żeby cała Polska, cała Europa, cały świat, żeby wszyscy zobaczyli, jak jesteśmy silni! pic.twitter.com/w4WU01cc9v

— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) June 4, 2023

The leaders of the majority of opposition parties encouraged their supporters to join the big march against the ruling populist nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, its leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his allies.

"Enough!", "We do not want an authoritarian Poland", "The PiS is the high cost of living", proclaimed placards directed against the majority in power in Poland for almost eight years, in the run-up to the general elections scheduled for the autumn.

Lech Walesa in the procession

Donald Tusk and Lech Walesa lead the procession in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, June 4, 2023. © Wojtek Radwanski, AFP

White and red hearts glued to their chests, PO officials led the way, accompanied by the legendary leader of the first free trade union in the communist world in the 1980s, Lech Walesa, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1983.

In a brief inaugural speech, Donald Tusk stressed that the opposition's mission is "of comparable importance" to that of the 1980s and the fight against communism at the time.

Long absent from the political scene, Lech Walesa said he had waited "patiently" for the day when the nationalist party and its leader Kaczynski would have to leave. "Jaroslaw Kaczynski, we came to get you. That day has arrived," Walesa said.

The date of the demonstration, which the opposition sees as a decisive moment in its march towards a possible electoral victory, is the 34th anniversary of the first partially free elections in Poland, which precipitated the fall of communism in Europe.

Lech Walesa's movement then succeeded in placing 160 of its candidates in the lower house, thus winning almost all the seats to which it was entitled, i.e. 35% of the mandates of this assembly, and 99% of all the positions of senators.

With AFP

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