Polish President Karol Nawrocki joined tens of thousands of nationalist demonstrators at Warsaw's annual Independence Day march on Wednesday, four days after a shooting in Krakow that authorities linked to far-right ideology.
The march, organized by nationalist groups under the slogan "Poles are masters in their own country," drew an estimated 250,000 participants according to Jarosław Misztal, director of the Warsaw Security Center. Organizers claimed turnout reached 500,000 or more. Participants waved red-and-white flags and chanted "Here is Poland, not Brussels" and "Tusk dictator" as horns blared and orange flares spewed smoke through the capital's streets.
The demonstration followed a shooting in Krakow's tourist center on Saturday that killed six people and injured 15. Authorities attributed the attack to a 24-year-old gunman possibly motivated by far-right ideology, with Justice Minister Valdemar Żurek noting the suspect had shown interest in Norwegian neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik.
Nawrocki, a staunch conservative, joined the march from the back without addressing the full crowd. Earlier, he delivered remarks at an official commemoration at Pilsudski Square, where he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. "Poland will be a solid, stable, and predictable ally when it comes to security," he said.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk attended a separate rally in Szczecin near the German border. In a video posted on X, he said, "Today, on November 11th, we were supposed to reach out to one another. Mr. President, we were meant to meet." He later wrote that Nawrocki "could have tried to unite Poles rather than divide them. What a shame." Tusk also invited Nawrocki and his family to his home in Sopot to share a Christmas Eve wafer and talk.
The march drew leading figures from the right-wing opposition, including Jarosław Kaczyński of the Law and Justice party (PiS) and politicians from the Konfederacja party. Nationalist groups from other European countries, including Spain's Revuelta and Hungary's Mi Hazánk, also participated. Police detained 59 people during the celebrations, including a man who threw a flare at a policewoman, and found pyrotechnics on 86 others.
The event took place during a dispute over the Constitutional Court, which has two competing leaderships after Nawrocki forcibly entered the institution on October 30. Marchers carried flags bearing Nawrocki's image, and one participant from Szczecin told Czech media, "Our entire independence is threatened at this moment," referring to the court dispute.
