‘God, honour, fatherland’: Independence Day march shows Poland’s polarisation

A quarter of a million nationalists marched on Warsaw to mark Poland’s 108th independence anniversary on Wednesday (11 November).

But the national holiday revealed political disputes and deep divisions in the country.

Carrying an AI-generated placard of Polish president Karol Nawrocki was Ireneusz, a Szczecin man who had ventured to the capital for independence day.

“They have taken over an independent institution, they got in through the back door … All our independence is under threat at this moment,” he said, pointing to the Constitutional Tribunal building in front of which he stood.

Once again, the institution has become the centre of a political dispute between president Nawrocki and prime minister Donald Tusk.

The power struggle between the leaders is a manifestation of deeper divisions in Polish society.

Poles are split between support for the right-wing bloc, including the far right who supported president Nawrocki's bid for office, or that of prime minister Tusk’s Civic Coalition.

Protests in the country come ahead of parliamentary elections next autumn.

Anastasiia Furman is a reporter for Deník N based in Prague. She covers developments in the European Union, its member states, and EU enlargement. She also writes about the United States and the Western Balkans, a region that has captivated her, likely once and for all. She studied law in Kyiv, Ukraine, and journalism and international relations in Brno, Czech republic.

Karolína Blažková is a journalist at Czech Denik N. She studied journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague. In 2025, she received a grant from the Daniel Anýž Fund, which enabled her to travel to Poland and write a series of reports focused on its economic growth.