Poland's President Marches at the Head of the Independence Day Rally in Warsaw; Organizers Claim About 500,000 Took Part
Poland held its annual Independence Day march on November 11, with tens of thousands of right-wing supporters marching through the capital, Warsaw. President Karol Nawrocki walked at the front of a crowd that stretched for more than 3 kilometers (1.9 miles). This year's slogan was 'Poles are masters of their own land.'
The march is organized by nationalist groups. Organizers estimated the crowd at about 500,000, while Warsaw city officials put it at around 250,000. Visiting foreign nationalists included members of Spain's Revuelta youth movement and Hungary's far-right Mi Hazánk party. The ruling centrists say the march has become a platform for racism; participants say it is an expression of national pride. Members of the liberal government, as always, stayed away, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk celebrated Independence Day hundreds of kilometers away in Szczecin.
Security was tighter this year: six people were killed in a shooting on Kraków's main square four days earlier, and the government initially suggested the gunman may have been motivated by far-right ideology, angering nationalists; Tusk appealed for restraint. Police deployed extra officers from outside the capital but declined to give numbers. The march passed without major incident.
(Source: Reuters)
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：华沙独立日游行往年画面（资料图）。照片：CC BY-SA 3.0 PL，经维基共享资源 / A past Independence March in Warsaw (file photo). Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0 PL, via Wikimedia Commons
