Opposition Rally Draws Nearly a Million Participants in Warsaw

Nearly a million people took part in a march in Warsaw, Poland on 01 October, 2023, an event organised by the main opposition coalition. Former European Council President Donald Tusk, who also previously led the country as PM spoke at the rally comparing it to the Solidarity movement of the 1980's. Currently the governing Law and Justice Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc or PiS) leads in the polls and is well on its way to a third term in power. Because of PiS's Eurosceptic, nationalist stance, its crackdown on women's rights and the rights of minorities and the LGBT community the country is staunchly divided. A new government formation may further be complicated by the role of the ultranationalist, far-right Confederation party as kingmaker as both major parties lack an absolute majority. Confederation has however ruled out cooperation with either the liberal Civic Coalition (KO) or PiS.