Tens of thousands of nationalist sympathisers gathered in central Warsaw for Poland’s Independence Day march on Wednesday, days after a mass shooting in Krakow killed six people and deepened political divisions, Al Jazeera reported.

Participants carried Polish flags as police were deployed to secure the demonstration. Conservative-nationalist President Karol Nawrocki attended the march, while Prime Minister Donald Tusk appealed for restraint and urged Poles to regard their country’s independence and security as a shared responsibility.

The gathering has long been a source of tension between right-wing groups and the governing centrists. Critics have condemned anti-Semitic and anti-immigration rhetoric associated with the annual march; supporters describe it as an expression of national pride. This year’s motto was “A Pole is the host in Poland”.

Organisers said they expected record attendance, with foreign nationalist groups also expected to participate. Those included Spain’s Revuelta, a youth movement linked to Vox, and members of Hungary’s far-right Mi Hazank party. The reporting did not establish a final turnout or confirm the attendance of those foreign groups.

Nawrocki used his remarks to challenge the centrist government, saying Poland “does not exist today so that the political elites can grant themselves the right to manage citizens … against the will of the nation”.

Before the march, Tusk struck a different tone. “We may hold different views, we may keep each other in check, and at times we may even be political opponents,” he said, before describing independence, freedom and a secure republic as “a common good”.

His appeal followed the Nov. 7 attack in Krakow’s main square, where a gunman killed six people and wounded more than a dozen. Ministers said the attacker may have been motivated by far-right ideology.

Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek said Tuesday that the killer had been interested in Anders Behring Breivik, the neo-Nazi who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011. Police announced Monday that the 24-year-old gunman had died in hospital after officers shot and arrested him on Saturday.

Poland’s Nov. 11 holiday commemorates the end of more than a century of partition by Russia, Prussia and Austria.

Sources