Poles demonstrate in support of EU membership

Warsaw, Oct. 11 (BNA): More than 100,000 Poles demonstrated on Sunday in support of EU membership, after a court ruling that parts of EU law were inconsistent with the constitution raised fears that the country might eventually leave the bloc.

Politicians across Europe expressed their displeasure with Thursday’s ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Court, which they saw as undermining the legal pillar on which the 27-nation European Union rests.

According to the organizers, protests erupted in more than 100 towns and cities across Poland and several cities abroad, with between 80,000 and 100,000 people gathering in the capital Warsaw alone, waving Polish and European Union flags and chanting “We are staying”.

Donald Tusk, former president of the European Council and leader of the main opposition party, Civic Tribune, said the policies of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party threaten Poland’s future in Europe.

“We know why they want to leave (the European Union)…so they can break democratic rules with impunity,” he said, speaking outside the Royal Castle in Warsaw, surrounded by thousands of protesters surrounded by flashing police vans.

PiS says it has no plans for a “Pulexit”.

But right-wing populist governments in Poland and Hungary have found themselves increasingly at odds with the European Commission on issues ranging from LGBT rights to judicial independence.

“Just as Brexit suddenly becomes a reality, something no one expected, the same can happen here,” said Janusz Kuczynski, 59, standing on a street in Warsaw’s historic district leading to the Royal Castle.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki welcomed Thursday’s court ruling and said every member state should be treated with respect and the EU should not be only “a group of those who are equal and more equal”.

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The state-run TVP station, which critics say is too focused on presenting the government’s view, aired a news tape reading “Protest against the Polish constitution” during its coverage of Sunday’s events.

Speakers at the demonstrations included politicians from across the opposition, artists and activists.

“This is our Europe and no one will get us out of it,” said Wanda Traczyk Stauska, a 94-year-old veteran of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against German Nazi occupiers.

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