Seen from the sky, it looked like a veritable blue and red tidal wave, woven with Polish and European Union flags. A massive, even historic rally: Poland had never experienced such a mobilization since the end of communism in 1989. On Sunday, nearly half a million people, according to city hall estimates, took to the streets of Warsaw to denounce the illiberal policy of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which continues to undermine democratic checks and balances.
June 4, the date of the rally – whose attendance exceeded the expectations of its organizers – coincided with the anniversary of the first semi-free elections in 1989, which precipitated the end of communism in Europe under the impulse of the union Solidarność. Not the least of the symbols, with the approach of legislative elections expected in the fall, which promise to be as close as they are crucial for the future of Polish democracy. Because it would be, in the opinion of defenders of the rule of law, the most decisive election since the end of the communist dictatorship in Poland, more than thirty years ago. “Being here today is an obligation if we want to maintain our democracy. It has nothing to do with politics, it’s a question of freedom, the rule of law, ”said Kuba Szadag, 61, used to pro-democracy demonstrations. Polish flag in hand, he is surrounded by a human tide gathered on Na Rozdrożu square, in the center of Warsaw, under a beating sun. Horns, waved flags and slogans, chanted or inscribed on countless placards, punctuated the parade: “We’ve had enough! “, “The PiS, leave us in peace”, “Free Poland”, “Democracy was better”, “If I wanted to live in Belarus, I would move”.
In eight years of national-populism, Polish democracy has been particularly damaged. Since its accession to power in 2015, the PiS has worked to dismantle the independence of justice, to the point of violating the constitutional order. Freedom of the press has not been spared, the executive having taken control of public broadcasting. Attacks on the rule of law which are worth in Warsaw, in open conflict with Brussels, to be deprived of the payment of European funds. And that’s without mentioning the significant tightening of the right to abortion and the anti-LGBT rhetoric that have punctuated the two successive terms of the national-conservative government. An “autocratic descent” also considered one of the fastest in the world, according to the NGO Freedom House.
“We have broken a certain barrier of indifference, of skepticism”, welcomes a combative Donald Tusk, white shirt rolled up, at the end of the demonstration concluded on the castle square, in the old town of Warsaw. “We will overcome this evil [lors du prochain scrutin] “, proclaims the leader of the liberal Civic Platform, the main opposition party in Poland. The “march” had been carefully organized a few weeks earlier, on his initiative, and in order to protest against “expensive living, theft and lies, in favor of democracy, free elections”. However, a sign of a challenge going well beyond his simple person – divisive even in opposition circles – all the Democratic opposition parties went there.
Among the approximately 500,000 demonstrators who marched on Sunday, here are Ewa and Maria, pensioners from Toruń, in northern Poland. Both made the three-hour trip to Warsaw, “to show that we are there, that we are resisting”: “In 1989, everything changed. However, with the PiS, things are getting worse. We remember communism very well, and we don’t want to lose the gains we have made since then. Around them, the cortege, monster, parades. “It’s impressive, it gives hope. But the challenge, above all, is to convince the undecided to vote for the opposition, because the pro-PiS, we cannot convince them, ”said Maria. “It will depend a lot on the youth, if they go to the polls,” adds Ewa, waving a miniature European flag.
The record mobilization was especially galvanized by the entry into force, Tuesday, May 30, of contested legislation sealing the establishment of a “commission on Russian influence”. “It was a huge motivation for many people, who were still reluctant to come, even if my choice was made long before,” explains Ewa. The text of the law, accused of violating the constitutional order, would be a travesty of justice. Because, under the guise of fighting against interference from Moscow, it is, according to many lawyers, to have an instrument to muzzle the opposition. Its detractors, who have dubbed it the “Tusk law”, see it as a way of disqualifying the sworn enemy of the PiS, the former Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, whom the propaganda portrays as an agent of the Kremlin. In the endin the original version of the law, an individual accused by this commission could be banned from holding public positions related to access to public finances and classified information for ten years.
But faced with strong criticism from Washington and Brussels, the Polish president did an about-face on Friday, May 26. After enacting it himself, he said he wanted to amend the law by removing the punitive provisions. Without convincing the lawyers, describing these changes as cosmetics. “The law is obviously a political tool to remove the leader of the opposition from the game. The amendments would not change much in this authoritarian objective”, observes Edit Zgut-Przybylska, political scientist at the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Sunday’s rally, like a show of force, in any case gives impetus to the disunited opposition. “The PiS, without wanting to, managed to mobilize the opposition electorate, also giving a very strong argument to demonstrate”, analyzes Anna Pacześniak, political scientist at the University of Wrocław, interviewed by The duty. However, splitting into three main blocs – the centrist liberals of the Civic Platform, the left and the Christian-Democratic and agrarian “third way” alliance – the anti-PiS camp remains vulnerable. The National Conservatives in power, who hover around 35% in voting intentions, are not guaranteed a majority either. The key to the ballot will partly come from the score of Konfederacja, an ultra-conservative party rallying far right and libertarians, which overflows the PiS on its right.
A little further in the crowd, Mirka Gostkiewicz, 62, a purple-haired Warsaw woman, wanders in the procession brandishing her instrument of protest, to say the least original: a roll of toilet paper on which are spread, inscribed on the felt, a string of recriminations addressed to the PiS. “Courts”, “LGBT”, “media brought to heel”… The sexagenarian also has “the impression of a return to communism”. “The democratic gains obtained in 1989, by dint of struggle, are disappearing. Especially since the next elections may not be fair. Kuba Szadag, who took part in the Solidarność revolution in Poland in the 1980s, warned bluntly: “If we lose, there may be no turning back, we can say goodbye to the democracy. And maybe, in ten years, we will become a new Belarus. »