In Poland, the opposition gathered 500,000 demonstrators in Warsaw against the conservative government.

On Sunday, June 4, a tidal wave of Polish and European flags covered the central streets of Warsaw under the bright sun. The crowd responded to a call by one of the opposition leaders, Donald Tusk, months before the autumn legislative elections. The 66-year-old, who was prime minister from 2007 to 2014 and returned to Polish politics after holding the presidency of the European Council, called for a march in Warsaw on April 15. “Against inflation, theft and lies and for free elections”.

The leader of the Civic Platform (PO), the main democratic opposition party, could hardly have dreamed of a better way to resume the election campaign. Warsaw City Hall estimated the number of demonstrators at around 500,000, a figure not seen in more than thirty years in a country that has lost the habit of mass gatherings of the Solidarnowski years.

Young people, pensioners and families from all over the country gathered in the capital in their own vehicles, carriages or specially chartered trains to express their displeasure with the policies of the ultra-conservative PiS (Law and Justice) party. In power since 2015 and accused of restricting the freedoms of Polish citizens.

At least that’s the thinking of Romek Hrincewicz, who left Dobre Miasto, a small town of 10,000 people 240 kilometers north of Warsaw, on Sunday morning. This psychologist remembers well the communist era and its hardships. “In 1989, I was 17 years old when communism fell. Today we can travel freely within the EU and the government is threatening to take us out.Protests against this Pentecostal.

“This fall we will be dealing with the most important elections since 1989. This government is overstepping all bounds and if PiS wins again, it is possible that it will rig the next elections by completely usurping the courts. And we will not silence the free media that we still have.”adds a protester waving a European flag.

“Democracy is on the hot seat”

Part of the success of the opposition on Sunday may be due to the initiative of the government. The law, which took effect on May 30, creates a commission to investigate Russian influence, which could remove from any position related to public funds those who were too close to the Kremlin. The commission was considered unconstitutional by many lawyers and condemned by Brussels and Washington. The law has been dubbed “lex Tusk” by commentators who see it as a tool to bar liberal Donald Tusk from becoming prime minister on the grounds that his government has signed gas contracts with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.