Thousands of Poles marched through Warsaw today to protest the policies of the populist ruling party under Jaroslaw Kaczynski, describing them as attacks on the country's democratic foundations.
Speakers at the "March of Freedom" said the government under the Law and Justice party has eroded the independence of courts and other institutions to such an extent that the country would not be accepted into the European Union or NATO today if it didn't already belong.
"We will not allow Kaczynski to take us out of Western Europe. Together we will defend freedom," said Jacek Jaskowiak, the mayor of Poznan, a city in western Poland.
The event was organized by the main opposition Civic Platform party, but members of other opposition parties and the Committee for the Defense of Democracy, a civic organization, also took part.
They are concerned about the way Law and Justice has consolidated power since it assumed power in 2015. The party has eroded the independence of the courts and the public media in a way that has also alarmed the European Union.
Kaczynski said today that the protesters were misguided.
"Freedom exists in Poland and only those who do not perceive reality can question that," Kaczynski said. City hall, which is under the control of Civic Platform, estimated that 50,000 people took part. The police, under the government's command, put the number at 9,000.
Either way, it was much smaller than the 240,000 who took part in the largest protest against the current government in May 2016.
Separately, a yearly pro-EU parade, called the Schumann Parade, also took place in Warsaw today.
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