Poland’s ruling left-liberal coalition bans Europe’s largest patriotic march

• On October 14, Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski decided to ban the Independence March and five other gatherings requested by the Independence March Association for October and November.

• Trzaskowski accused the March organizers of attempting to restrict the freedom of other gatherings that could potentially take place in Warsaw at the time and said that holding a patriotic demonstration would lead to traffic obstructions and violations of the law.

• Lawyers for the Ordo Iuris Institute, on behalf of the Independence March Association, took that decision to the Warsaw District Court.

• The Warsaw District Court dismissed the case. Now the Ordo Iuris attorneys have filed an appeal against the court’s decision.

• Earlier, the Mazovian voivode denied the Independence March the status of a recurrent assembly, despite it taking place every November 11.

• In early September, on orders from the prosecutor’s office, police searched the headquarters of the Independence March Association and the homes of Association members.

The Independence March is a large-scale march of Polish patriots that takes place every year on Poland’s Independence Day, November 11. It is known throughout Europe and attracts patriots from other European countries as well. It assumed the character of a mass demonstration open to various patriotic circles in 2010, when the Polish far left tried to ban a small march organized by Polish nationalists.

This year, after the return to power of Donald Tusk, under whose rule provocations and clashes at the Independence March occurred every year through 2014, the Independence March Association notified city officials of additional gatherings. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski did not post information about any of the gatherings in the Public Information Bulletin, which means there was no assurance the demonstrations could take place. The March organizers wanted to avoid a situation in which others scheduled a gathering at the same time and place to prevent the March participants from processing through the streets of Warsaw.

According to Rafał Trzaskowski, however, the applications of the Independence March Association were aimed at gaining an “advantage” over other gatherings that could potentially take place in Warsaw at that time, and this would “limit the constitutional freedom” of the organizers of those demonstrations. The organization of the Independence March would also allegedly lead to “traffic paralysis” and create “a real threat to the safety of people in other areas and districts of Warsaw.” The mayor also stated that “holding these gatherings in the manner specified by the organizer could endanger the life or health of people or property to a significant degree.” In his opinion, there supposedly were “collective violations of legal order” (in connection to the March) in previous years.

The Ordo Iuris Institute noted in the case made to the district court in Warsaw that Mayor Trzaskowski, contrary to regulations, did not actually allow the Association to participate in the administrative proceedings. The complain clarifies that the city government, during its inquiry, limited its activities to the collection of information from the Chief of the Capital Police, the Chief of the Warsaw Municipal Fire Service, the director of the MEDITRANS Regional Ambulance Transport Station, and the director of the Municipal Transport Authority. Trzaskowski did not inform the Independence March Association of his intention to close the inquiry and prevented it from defending its position and referencing the opinions of the aforementioned entities. In addition, the mayor did not hold an administrative hearing on the matter. During such a hearing, the relevant authorities might have clarified any doubts. Thus, the Association could not explain, among other things, why it applied for six different demonstrations, what security measures it intended to employ during these demonstrations, and what courses they would take through the city.

According to the Ordo Iuris Institute, the behavior of the mayor of Warsaw is incompatible with the constitutional right to assembly. Mayor Trzaskowski, through his actions, is committing discrimination based on worldview and political views and violating the right to equal treatment of the demonstration organizers and participants. Lawyers from the Ordo Iuris Institute sought to admit evidence from the testimony of the president of the Independence March Association, Bartosz Malewski, as well as from Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski. However, the court disregarded both requests, as it considered them irrelevant to the outcome of the case. The lawyers also demanded that the court consider numerous press materials noting the safe conduct of the Independence March in previous years, as well as positive assessments of the safety and peaceful nature of the event from the Warsaw Police and mayor.

The Association’s attorneys also recalled the November 8, 2018, ruling of the Warsaw District Court, which indicated that “the issuance of a ban on a gathering cannot be based on mere conjecture or speculation and cannot be based on the fact that the authority issuing the ban on the gathering does not accept the views of the march organizers.” At the time, the Warsaw mayor tried to prevent the assembly of the Independence March. Ordo Iuris also stresses that the Independence March has been successfully processing through the streets of Warsaw since 2010, with the Association organizing it since 2012. The event has never been banned on the basis now asserted by Mayor Trzaskowski. In addition, as Ordo Iuris notes, the organizers implement and improve measures for adequately securing the demonstration every year. However, the Association cannot be held responsible for the actions of individuals who arrive at the gathering for purposes unknown to the organizers, just as it cannot be held responsible for the actions of counter-demonstrators whose purpose is to disrupt, interrupt, or block the march.

However, the Warsaw District Court dismissed the case. Judge Sylwia Urbańska, chairwoman of the Second Civil Division of the Warsaw District Court, issued the ruling. In the past, she has signed appeals promoted by the Iustitia Association of Polish Judges, including one for the reinstatement of Judge Igor Tuleya. The latter is one of the Polish activist judges supported by Iustitia and known for abusing the European Union’s mechanism of questions referred for a preliminary ruling to seek the annulment of Polish judicial reforms by the Court of Justice of the European Union. This occurred at a time when the previous ruling coalition held a majority in the Sejm.

This is the latest measure taken by the pro-EU, liberal Polish authorities against the Independence March in recent months. Previously, the Mazovian voivode twice refused to grant the March the status of a recurrent assembly, which would have made it difficult for the mayor to issue a ban. Then, in early September, on the order of the prosecutor’s office, police forcibly entered the Association headquarters, requisitioning a number of documents and electronic equipment. The pretext for the services’ actions was the alleged issuance of criminal threats by an unidentified participant in the 2018 demonstration, which assembled some 200,000 Polish patriots for the centennial of Poland’s reclaimed independence.