Poland’s two former presidents led about 50,000 marchers in Warsaw on Saturday to protest against the right-wing government’s policies and mark 27 years since the ousting of communism.

The march was another in a series organised by a new civic movement, the Committee for the Defense of Democracy, or KOD, against the conservative government that took office in November. The government’s policies have strained Poland’s relations with the European Union and the US and angered many in Poland. But the ruling party insists it has a mandate from Poland’s voters.



The nationalist government has focused on helping those left out of Poland’s economic growth and increased its grip on state institutions. The moves have paralysed the nation’s Constitutional Tribunal, put state-owned media under government control and increased police surveillance powers.

The EU says Poland’s rule of law and democracy are in danger.



The protests brought former presidents Aleksander Kwaśniewski, a left-winger, and Bronisław Komorowski, a centrist, together to remind people of their attachment to freedom and democracy, which they won on 4 June, 1989, in an election that peacefully ousted the communists from power.

“We want a free Poland because we fought for it, we dreamed about it and we built it,” Komorowski, a dissident under communism, told the crowd.

Warsaw authorities said 50,000 people took part. Smaller marches also took place in other Polish cities and in Berlin and Brussels, the EU headquarters.

At the ruling Law and Justice party’s regional meeting in Warsaw, party leader Jarosław Kaczyński insisted his policies are improving the lives of Poles and protecting Poland’s independence in the 28-nation EU.

Poles have the right to “a new, better shape that would better serve the vast majority of Poles and we will not give that right up,” Kaczyński said, pounding the podium.