Tens of thousands of Poles join the pro-EU demonstrations

On Sunday, tens of thousands of Poles took part in a demonstration in favor of the European Union and against the policies of the current government. In Warsaw, according to a city council spokesman, eighty to one hundred thousand people are said to have gathered at the Royal Castle in the old part of the city, Polish media reported. Government supporters questioned these figures.

The protesters opposed the ruling of the Polish Constitutional Court earlier this week, which said that Polish law and constitution are more important than EU law. Demonstrators in Warsaw waved Polish and European flags and chanted slogans such as “We stay” and “We are Europe”. Dozens of other cities, including Krakow and Gdansk, also demonstrated against the Constitutional Court ruling on Sunday.

“Legal Pole Exit”

Opposition leader Donald Tusk, who is also the country’s former prime minister and former president of the European Council, called the protests earlier this week and addressed the Royal Castle in Warsaw during the demonstration. “I am sounding the alarm because the ruling party has decided to take Poland out of the European Union,” he said, referring to the conservative nationalist government of the PiS. We want an independent, European, democratic, law-abiding and just Poland. These principles are being crushed today by authority without conscience and morals.”

The ruling of the Polish Constitutional Court, that Partially set illegal, Controversial. The ruling states that Polish politicians can ignore some elements of European law and that rulings by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg are not binding, which goes against fundamental principles of the European Union.

According to critics, the court’s ruling is “political-legal” and has brought a departure from the European legal system even closer. On the other hand, Poland’s Justice Minister Zbigniew Sziobru welcomed what he believed to be “constitutional limits to European integration” he said were set by the ruling.