A mass rally in Warsaw on Sunday afternoon, October 1st, by Poland’s liberal opposition has sparked a war of words with the country’s ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party over the exact number of attendees. Elsewhere, a senior left-wing MEP raised eyebrows by urging a female-led sex strike against the country’s populist right.
Spearheaded by Poland’s EU-backed opposition party Civic Platform and former PM Donald Tusk, the “March of a Million Hearts” presented a united front of liberal and left-wing parties as numbers present varied wildly from 100,000 to 800,000 depending on sources.
Poland is preparing for parliamentary elections on October 15th as Warsaw’s incumbent national conservative PiS government attempts to see off a challenge both from the Europhile left and a rising tide of anti-NATO populism in the form of the Konfederacja party in what is without a doubt the most important European election of the year.
Streets in Warsaw were thronged with marchers Sunday, carrying EU and Polish flags, as Tusk said during his onstage remarks that a “breakthrough moment” was coming for progressive as polls suggest a slight weakening for PiS and the right.
Tusk was joined on stage by the leaders of The Left (Lewica), a party whose support would be essential to dislodging PiS in any post-election calculus.
PiS has been in power since 2015, but polls suggest it could fall short of a majority, leading to a scramble for coalition partners that could put them out of power.
PiS has strategically toned down its pro-Ukranian policies in the face of an agrarian backlash caused by an oversupply of Ukrainian grain as Warsaw ceased its supply of arms to the embattled Kyiv government.
As Poland is a keystone in NATO’s response to the Ukraine crisis, rumours began circulating last week of an alleged plot between the French, German and Ukrainian governments to oust PiS in exchange for fast-tracked Ukrainian EU membership. Additionally, the Polish government last week decried what it claimed was an engineered border crisis with Germany over a cash-for-visa scandal within the country’s diplomatic agencies.
The election is a major political barometer for the future of European populism with Brussels targeting Warsaw for regime change through its incessant rule of law attacks and tacit support for Tusk and the opposition.
Elsewhere, one socialist MEP seriously suggested that female voters could influence the vote by refusing sex to voters for the right-wing Konfederacja party, exceptionally popular among young Polish men.
“Girls, if a guy tells you he wants to vote for Confederation, don’t go to bed with him. They need to be scared,” declared MEP Robert Biedroń as he outlined a wish for Konfederacja to be pushed back behind a social cordon sanitaire.
A collection of right-wing parties that merged in 2018, Konfederacja has soared to over 10% in opinion polls with its strong libertarian-infused anti-NATO message. It has also criticised PiS over rising immigration numbers.
