Tusk says size of march shows how many are ready 'to fight for Poland'
Poland's opposition leader Donald Tusk told a vast crowd of anti-government demonstrators in the centre of Warsaw on Sunday that their march showed the government “how many of us are ready to fight for democracy.”
Thousands of people packed into central Warsaw in one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations the capital has seen in years.
Tusk, who had called for the march in April, asking people to protest against “theft, high prices and lies” and campaign for “free elections and a democratic and European Poland”, stood alongside Lech Walesa, the leader of Poland’s struggle to rid itself of communist rule.
"We are here today for all of Poland, all of Europe and the whole world to see how strong we are, how many of us are ready.... to fight for freedom and democracy," Tusk, a former prime minister, said at the event's opening.
"I see an ocean of human heads, a sea of white-and-red flags," Tusk continued. "We are thousands, thousands of people with Poland in our hearts, tens of thousands, millions in front of their TVs, Poles who have not allowed themselves to be broken and intimidated."
Tusk also thanked Walesa, an ex-president of Poland and legendary leader of the Solidarity Union that overthrew the communist regime in 1989, for his role in restoring freedom in Poland.
Piotr Mueller, the government spokesman, commented on the march on Twitter.
"Today, the chairman of the Civic Platform and the former president of Poland are trying to overthrow the government that broke with the reset policy in relations with Russia, which was designed by Donald Tusk and Radoslaw Sikorski (foreign minister in Tusk government)," Mueller wrote.
The march is one of the biggest political demonstrations seen in Poland in recent years. (PAP)
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