Poles hold large anti-government protest in favor of EU
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Tens of thousands of Poles - perhaps up to a quarter million - marched through Warsaw on Saturday to express their support for the European Union and opposition to a conservative new government which they accuse of eroding democracy.
City authorities estimated that 240,000 turned out in one of the largest street demonstrations this Central European country has seen since communism collapsed 27 year ago. Police said there were 45,000 at the event's peak, but that the number did not include those who came and left at other points.
Either way, televised images showed a sea of people and it was clearly the largest anti-government demonstration by far since the Law and Justice party took power last year and embarked on bringing deep changes which the party has dubbed "good change."
The protesters object to centralization of power under the right-wing party. The greatest controversy has surrounded steps that have paralyzed the Constitutional Tribunal, neutralizing it as a check on the party's power.
Law and Justice maintains that it has a democratic mandate to make the changes after decisive electoral wins last year. It said they were necessary to remove the influence of political opponents on the tribunal that would halt its work.
"I am marching because I don't like the 'good change' and I don't like this dividing of Poland and I don't like the weakening of Poland's international position," said Lukasz Lomanowski, a 29-year-old horse-riding instructor.
One leader of the pro-EU march, Civic Platform party leader Grzegorz Schetyna, declared it the biggest demonstration in the democratic era. It was not immediately clear, though, how the numbers compared to protests by miners in the 1990s during the transition to a market economy.
There was a counter-protest by about 1,000 nationalists and Catholic groups who voiced their opposition to the influence of Brussels on Poland's affairs and the secular lifestyle that has come with EU membership. They held up crosses and an image of St. Mary, praying and singing hymns.
The demonstrations highlight a bitter divide in Poland between those who want deeper integration with Europe and those who feel that EU membership has eroded national sovereignty, only recently regained after the end of the Cold War.
The anti-government march was organized by the opposition centrist Civic Platform party and the civic movement Committee for the Defense of Democracy, known as KOD, and was supported by other opposition parties.
KOD was created in November, shortly after Law and Justice took power and began taking steps that have weakened the Constitutional Tribunal, a top court. That move and others which have helped the party centralize power have been condemned by the EU and the Council of Europe, a human rights group.
The ruling party says its changes are aimed at building a stronger nation free of what it says are the continued influence of former communists. Some 5.7 million voted for Law and Justice in the nation of 38 million in October elections and it remains popular.