WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish President Karol Nawrocki joined hundreds of thousands of right-wing demonstrators, waving red-and-white national flags and chanting slogans, at an annual march on Wednesday to mark the country's Independence Day.
The demonstration organized by nationalists came amid concerns about violent extremism after a deadly shooting in the touristic center of southwestern Krakow on Saturday, which authorities attributed to a far-right
gunman.
Vociferous speeches ahead of the march cited historic and Christian themes while evoking Poland's past subjugation under Germany and the Soviet Union. One speaker denounced “toxic ideologies” circulating on the Internet. A message of patriotism resounded throughout.
As the march got under way, Nawrocki — a staunch conservative and nationalist — joined in from the back: He did not address the full crowd. Horns blared, voices shouted, and orange flares spewed smoke under cloudy skies.
The PAP news agency cited Jarosław Misztal, director of the Warsaw Security Center, as saying some 250,000 people took part, with no major incidents, while march organizers put turnout at half a million or more.
The president opted instead to deliver remarks earlier at an official commemoration at Pilsudski Square, where he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He addressed security concerns and called for unity, among other things.
“Poland will be a solid, stable, and predictable ally when it comes to security, and Polish political elites will build our security not with political disputes in mind, but for the safety of Polish women and men,” said Nawrocki.
His chief political rival, pro-European Prime Minister Donald Tusk, attended a separate rally in the city of Szczecin, near the German border.
“Today, on November 11th, we were supposed to reach out to one another. Mr. President, we were meant to meet," Tusk said, in comments in a video posted on his X account, appealing for unity between the country's top two political leaders.
Referring to Nawrocki, he later wrote that "on this one day, he could have tried to unite Poles rather than divide them. What a shame.”
Poland has been increasingly divided in recent weeks, though largely united in grief over the Krakow shooting. Rival political factions have locked horns over appointments to the Constitutional Court.
The crowds gathered as Poland marked the 108th anniversary of its restored independence at the end of World War I after more than a century of being partitioned and ruled by Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary.
The date of Nov. 11 carries powerful weight for a nation where the trauma of losing national sovereignty endures. The annual march organized by nationalist groups has sometimes been marred by violent clashes in past years.
