A few days before the European elections, supporters of Prime Minister Donald Tusk held a rally in Poland to commemorate the first partially free elections of 1989.
They gathered on Warsaw’s Castle Square on Tuesday with Polish flags and banners reading “We are citizens of the EU.”
“You are here because Poland is not yet tired of freedom,” Tusk said.
June 4 is an important date in Poland: on this day in 1989 the first partially free elections were held – a triumph of the democratic movement and the Solidarity, or Solidarność, trade union, which also heralded the end of communist rule.
“The history of 1989 was the expulsion of the Soviet system from our country. Today we are here to ensure that this system does not return,” Tusk said, referring to Russia’s war against neighboring Ukraine.
The meeting was aimed at mobilizing supporters of Tusk’s liberal-conservative Civic Coalition ahead of the European elections on June 9.
However, it also recalls a very successful protest on the same day last year. At the time, more than 100,000 people demonstrated against the policy of the then nationalist conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS).
The large demonstration gave the camp led by Tusk a new impetus. As a result, the PiS was voted out of office in the October 2023 parliamentary elections. Poland is now governed by a centre-left coalition led by Tusk.
