More than 300,000 people flood Warsaw to protest the ‘Tusk Law’: “They will not silence us!”

More of 300,000 peopleaccording to independent estimates, demonstrated this Sunday in Warsaw against the government’s policy and its new law, which will investigate the alleged russian influence in previous governments, in what could mean an attack on the democratic system in the face of year-end general election.

In all the big cities of the country there have been mass demonstrations called by Donald Tuskleader of the main opposition party, civic platformto which almost all the political formations with parliamentary representation opposed to the Government have joined.

“Poland is here! No one can silence us!“, Donald Tusk proclaimed before those attending the concentration. “We are thousands, thousands of people who have Poland in our hearts, millions of Polish women and men who are in front of the television and who are not defeated, that they are not intimidated“added the leader of the Civic Platform party.

The center of the Polish capital was left overwhelmed by the influx of protesterswho on their way made a stop in front of the presidential palace to launch slogans against the president, Andrzej Duda. These are the most important protests since the feminist marches against abortion ban in 2020.

The date of these demonstrations was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the first democratic elections in Poland and to highlight one of its main objectives: “to vindicate the rule of law and rehabilitate the state of Polish democracy, increasingly degraded by the decisions of the current government“, in the words of one of the attendees.

[Lech Walesa, el líder de la Polonia que tumbó a la URSS: “Dejad que hable con Putin y lo arreglo en un segundo”]

The trigger for these protests has been the recent creation of a commission to investigate the possible interference by the Kremlin in the governments between 2007 and 2022 and that, through extraordinary powers such as searching and interrogating suspects, it could lead to the disqualification of any political rival of the government.

In a speech before the demonstrators, Donald Tusk pointed out the “anger but also the hope” that according to him “was shown today to Poland, Europe and the whole world” and underlined the “willingness to fight for democracy and a free Poland”.

For his part, the spokesman for the Polish government party Rafal Bochenek He declared this Friday to the Warsaw press that “apart from statements of hate, aggressiveness and blasphemies that denote the cultural level of its conveners” he did not see “any proposal” coming out of the demonstrations “and in any case,” he added, “Elections are won at the polls, not in protests“.

The first report of the commission against Russian influence, known as “Lex Tusk“, will be presented next September, 17thwhen Poland will be in full electoral campaign, which according to the opposition will be used by the Government to harm its rivals, especially Donald Tusk, who presided over the Polish Government between 2007 and 2014 and will be one of the main investigators.