On Nov. 11, Poles across the world and within Poland celebrated our National Independence Day. This year’s celebrations were special, as they marked 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence.
The key event was the Warsaw march of hundreds of thousands of Poles who honored this great national holiday with due dignity. The celebrations have clearly shown how the Poles love their homeland.
Unfortunately, however, many of the world’s media outlets did what they had done in the past: They published a distorted picture giving the impression that the march was all about a few far-right groups that participated. This is not what happened in Warsaw that day.
During the celebrations of the National Independence Day in Warsaw, a couple of incidents were reported. All of them are being investigated by the police. As the police commander has told the press, police officers reported six incidents: broken wing mirrors of a few cars parked along the march’s route, a damaged facade of a small shop, and one beating (the police have detained the perpetrators). Also, a European Union flag was burned, and a number of participants used pyrotechnics while in the crowd. The police are looking for those responsible for these incidents. Their pictures have been posted online, and some of them have already been found and held liable for their actions.
Contrary to what some media outlets have suggested, the march’s participants did not use slogans or messages that breached the law. This was ensured by the experts commissioned by the police to monitor slogans and banners appearing in the crowds. Slogans of radical nature, if any, were incidental occurrences.
Given that approximately 250,000 people took part in the march and that it was the biggest mass event in Warsaw in years, the scale of incidents was really marginal. These unfortunate mishaps should not have overshadowed what was a joyful and celebratory gathering.
The march in Warsaw compared favorably to official mass events celebrated in other European countries. That’s because Poland’s ruling party since 2015 takes the country’s internal security more seriously than its predecessor. In the past, independence day marches became urban battles, with the authorities unable (or even reluctant) to take preventive measures.
This year’s National Independence Day was first and foremost a great holiday for all of the Poles and their great success. The competent services, both special and uniformed, also contributed to this success with superb planning that minimized disorder.
The Internal Security Agency (ABW) and other special services supervised by the minister Mariusz Kaminski identified individuals whose participation in the march could have posed a threat to public order. The ABW, working hand in hand with the police, detained approximately 100 people with ties to radical nationalist groups. These individuals are linked to groups that had planned to come to Warsaw with the aim of disrupting the march.
The officers of the services also conducted searches in the detainees’ places of residence and found materials promoting totalitarian rule. Moreover, the ABW prepared for Independence Day by drafting a list of 400 extremists from different European countries who could have tried to come to Poland to disrupt festivities. As a result of cooperation between the ABW and Polish Border Guard, most of the listed individuals were stopped at the border. Faced with a firm stance of Polish institutions, some of them decided not to come to Poland at all.
The extent of the state services’ activities has shown that in Poland, there is zero tolerance for violent, radical groups that spread totalitarian propaganda. Despite receiving broad media coverage, these groups are marginal in Poland and are dealt with by authorities in a determined manner.
Other European countries face a much bigger problem with such groups than Poland does. According to statistical data, the Polish services had to expend more effort to secure the celebrations from the arrival of European extremists than to stop homegrown threats. It is not Poland that is troubled by extremist groups driven by hate and violence, either the neo-Nazi underground circles or the far-left ones.
Yes, both are present in Poland, but their presence is only marginal, far less acute than in Western Europe. Just look at the latest report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights on anti-Semitism. The document finds that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Poland has dropped significantly for a second year in a row. Germany and France now have more anti-Semitic incidents than Poland.
Yet if you went by the media coverage, you might get the false impression that Poland is a place that is being radicalized under the state’s umbrella. It is not so. Such accusations do not withstand the official data or the Polish government’s strict and effective policy against violent radicalism.
The National Independence Day in Poland was celebrated in a very solemn and glamorous manner. For Poles, Nov. 11 is the most important state holiday. And this year, the holiday festivities were particularly beautiful and safe.
Sadly, some people used it as yet another opportunity to attack Polish society and the authorities, especially media outlets that do not wish Poland well and suffer a disconnect from reality.
Stanislaw Zaryn is a spokesperson for the Polish Minister-Special Services Coordinator.
