National holiday in Poland: “This is Poland, not Brussels!”

This year's march will begin in Poland's capital Warsaw at exactly 2:30 p.m. this Wednesday, Independence Day. A sea of ​​white and red national flags waves from the Dmowski Rondo, named after one of the state's founders in 1918, Roman Dmowski, towards the Poniatowski Bridge.

After the terrorist attack last Saturday in the second largest Polish city of Krakow, which left 6 dead and 15 people, some seriously injured, there are significantly more stewards and police officers present this year. They make sure that the march is quieter than usual and more disciplined. Although Bengalos and other fireworks are set off despite the ban, there appears to be no arson and hardly any violent riots in the afternoon.

The chants “This is Poland, not Brussels!”, “Away with the EU!”, “Ukrainians – get out!” or “Tusk dictator!” but clearly show that the march, which was hijacked by Polish right-wing radicals over a decade ago, has not changed its political orientation. Liberal media such as the television station TVN24 therefore consistently call the march “nationalist march”.

The motto “The Pole is master of his own country” is clearly directed against the European Union and the center-left government under Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The right-wing radical organizers, who came together a few years ago in an association with the harmless title “Independence March,” are promoting the march with a poster depicting Poland's prime minister as a traitor to the people with a black bar over his eyes.

On the poster he stands symbolically over the whole of Poland and pulls on strings like a puppet master. But he himself is not free either. Above him stands the German and President of the EU's European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, with an EU flag and pulling on the strings of the Polish puppet Donald Tusk. But – as the poster suggests – salvation is in sight, because the real Poles taking part in the march have already cut most of the cords that Tusk is pulling. There are only two more left and it seems to be done.

The fact that Poland's national right-wing President Karol Nawrocki joined the march and walked in the crowd with his bodyguards and a large white and red national flag has precisely to do with this slogan: “The Pole is the master of his own country”. At the beginning of his presidency over a year ago, Nawrocki had declared that his main goal was to bring down Donald Tusk's government. Since then he has been blocking the restoration of the democratic constitutional state in Poland with his vetoes.

The “Law and Justice” (PiS) party, which was close to Nawrocki and was in power from 2015 to 2023, dismantled this. The abolition of the separation of powers had made the PiS state very powerful. Most Polish voters liked this so much that they confirmed the PiS as the strongest party again in the 2023 elections. The only reason the PiS is not in power is because it was unable to form a coalition. That could change after the 2027 parliamentary elections, as it has moved closer to the right-wing radical parties.

“I'm not interested in politics,” says a sprightly pensioner who comes from the Mass for the Fatherland in the Church of All Saints. “Today is the biggest march on Independence Day and the president is coming too.” She laughs and points to her hair accessories with the red and white fabric flowers. “I want to run with it,” she says. “I’m a patriot!”

The church is so full that many have to stand outside the doors in the cold. What the priest says cannot be heard. Nevertheless, a few hundred people are waiting there and also remembering the victims in Krakow. However, no one wants to talk about the crime that caused a shock in Poland.

After the mass, the service participants join individual groups in front of the church and march with waving flags to the Dmowski Rondo and the “Independence City” built there. Most stalls only offer flags, patriotic football scarves, white and red armbands with a symbol from the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and pastries or candies. A man has Polish right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic books spread out on a narrow table. However, buyer interest in this literature is limited.

Already in the afternoon, the organizers of the march claimed that around half a million Poles, many from other cities, had come to Warsaw - just as they had predicted. But neither the city administration nor the police have yet confirmed this number. This is probably only expected after 8 p.m. Then, after the final rally in front of the national stadium, it will become clear whether there were riots or whether it remained calm.