Thousands marched in Warsaw to commemorate Poland’s Independence Day, led by a far-right organization calling for a strong border, and its army prevented hundreds of new attempts to enter the country from neighboring countries Belarus In a tense political stalemate.
Security forces patrolled the capital and other cities for festival rallies. In recent years, there have been some violent attacks by nationalist extremists.
This year’s parade was cast a shadow Events at the border between Poland and BelarusThousands of riot police and military forces are blocking people trying to enter the European Union, many of them from the Middle East. The temporary camp appeared in the forest on the Belarusian side, near a border crossing in the Polish town of Kuźnica. As the temperature dropped, access to the border was restricted. People are worried about a humanitarian crisis.
European Union officials accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of using the people as pawns in a “mixed attack” in retaliation for the sanctions imposed on his authoritarian regime because the regime carried out severe internal repression of dissidents.
“We thank the defenders of the Polish border,” said a banner seen in Warsaw, 155 miles west of Kuznica.Traditional patriotic music, some of which are banned Poland It was part of the Soviet bloc and also played. The liberal mayor and courts of Warsaw have banned the march, but the right-wing authorities of the national government overturned the order and granted the assembly the status of a state ceremony.
The government’s support for the extreme-right leaders in the parade underscores the hopes of the Polish right-wing ruling party for their support.Too Political struggle with the EU Poland’s reform of the country’s judicial institutions is seen in Brussels as an erosion of democratic norms and as a discourse that discriminates against LGBT groups.
In 2017, the independence parade Attracted tens of thousands, including white nationalist and anti-Semitist slogans. However, in the second year, the 100th anniversary of the restoration of Poland, the president, prime minister and other leaders Follow the same line as the nationalists.
In seeking a ban on demonstrations, the opposition mayor Rafał Trzaskowski argued that Warsaw, which was razed to the ground by Nazi Germany during World War II, “has no place to promote The slogan of all the characteristics of the fascist slogan”.
TVP National Television, the mouthpiece of the ruling party, called it “the great parade of Polish patriots.”
At the beginning of Thursday’s parade, some groups held Poland’s white and red flags, but some also waved the green flag of the National Radical Camp, which displayed stylized hands with swords, a symbol of the extreme right in the 1930s.
The Deputy Minister of the Interior Maciej Wasik stated on Twitter that many security forces “will set off directly from Warsaw to defend our border with Belarus. Remember this when marching!”
The march leader Robert Bakevich said in a speech that all Poles should stand behind the troops and officials protecting the eastern border.
“You know, dear, we met under special circumstances. This parade is unique and different from other parades. There are not only internal disputes today, but also external disputes today,” he said. “Today the Polish border was attacked.”
