Annual Polish Independence March passes through Warsaw

Polish President Karol Nawrocki participated in Warsaw's annual Independence Day march on Wednesday, walking alongside hundreds of thousands of right-wing demonstrators waving red-and-white flags. The event, organized by nationalist groups under the slogan "Polak w Polsce gospodarzem" ("Poles are masters in their own country"), came four days after a 24-year-old Polish man, Michał Oksiński, killed six people and injured over a dozen more in a shooting in Krakow. Poland's justice minister said evidence shows "strong traces of right-wing extremism" in Oksiński's activity, including search history related to Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Breivik.

The PAP news agency cited Warsaw Security Center director Jarosław Misztal as saying some 250,000 people took part with no major incidents, while march organizers claimed half a million or more. Last year, organizers said 300,000 attended while the city estimated 100,000. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaszkowski, a deputy leader of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Coalition, said the march proceeded without incident aside from illegal use of pyrotechnics.

Prime Minister Tusk, Nawrocki's chief political rival, attended a separate rally in Szczecin near the German border. In a video posted on X, Tusk said, "Today, on November 11th, we were supposed to reach out to one another. Mr. President, we were meant to meet," and later wrote that "on this one day, he could have tried to unite Poles rather than divide them. What a shame." Tusk renewed an invitation for Nawrocki to visit his home for talks before Christmas, saying, "We must be able to discuss things together, without bitterness, without hatred."

Nawrocki earlier laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Piłsudski Square, stating: "Poland will be a solid, stable, and predictable ally when it comes to security, and Polish political elites will build our security not with political disputes in mind, but for the safety of Polish women and men." The march displayed unity among right-wing and far-right opposition parties ahead of next year's parliamentary elections, with Law and Justice leader Jarosław Kaczyński saying, "It's about showing our strength and, at the same time, for this march to be a springboard for the election campaign. Unity is important." Confederation leader Krzysztof Bosak declared, "Next year, we must turn this community into an election victory...We must remove the current clique from power and form a pro-Polish government." However, Confederation's other leader, Sławomir Mentzen, posed with a banner crossing out both Tusk and Kaczyński alongside the word "Reset," highlighting divisions within the opposition.