Two weeks before an election that the liberal Civic Platform (PO) believes may determine Poland's EU membership and democracy, hundreds of thousands of people gathered for an opposition protest in Warsaw on Sunday.
The opposition-controlled Warsaw city administration estimated the gathering at one million people at its peak.
Poland's Opposition Supporters Mass in Warsaw
Nevertheless, according to police sources, state-controlled television, which largely disregarded the event and instead broadcast a pre-election convention of the ruling Law and Justice party, estimated that fewer than 100,000 people attended.
The march was the largest demonstration of antigovernment sentiment since the 1980s when Poland's Solidarity trade union movement rallied against totalitarianism. It paved the way for the concluding stages of an increasingly vicious election campaign.
On October 15, Poland will conduct a general election that will determine whether the conservative Law and Justice party secures an unprecedented third consecutive term in office.
Per NY Times, Poland is deeply divided on issues ranging from its relations with the rest of Europe to abortion rights.
In a speech peppered with references to Poland's past struggles for freedom, Donald Tusk, the principal opposition leader, urged patriots to oust a right-wing nationalist government, which he claimed was pitting Poles against Poles and defiling the legacy of national heroes who had fought against foreign occupation.
He pledged to end what he termed "the Polish-Polish conflict," which he claimed was stoked by the ruling party's labeling as traitors Poles who deviate from traditional Catholic values or turn to the European Union for assistance against discrimination and government interference in the judiciary.
He stated, "Change for the best is inevitable."
The event, billed as "the march of a million souls," featured Polish, European Union, and a few American flags waved by Poles with relatives in the United States.
Polish Election
Marchers interviewed by the Polish private news channel TVN24 stated that they participated for the sake of their children, grandchildren, women, and LGBTQ+ people, whom they want to live in a progressive, tolerant, and European Poland. Participants concluded the occasion by singing the national anthem.
Other Polish communities also hosted rallies for the Civic Coalition. The Third Way, a centrist opposition alliance, skipped the capital march and conducted its own rallies. The Law and Justice party was conducting a convention in Katowice, a city in southern Poland.
Recent surveys place Tusk's electoral alliance a few percentage points behind Law and Justice. He asserts that the opposition, which includes the Left Party and Third Way, could defeat the governing party and establish a coalition government. He greeted the leaders of Third Way at the beginning of his march.
The spokesperson for the Warsaw municipal government, Jakub Leduchowski, estimated the throng to be approximately one million people, and Tusk referred to the march as the "largest political gathering in the world" that day.
According to ABC News, organizers estimated that 500,000 people participated in a comparable Civic Coalition march in June.
Tusk, 66, returned to Polish politics several years ago to revitalize his dormant Civic Platform party and rectify what many view as a decline in fundamental liberties under the government of Law and Justice.
The ruling party and the government have conducted an antagonistic and aggressive campaign. The popularity of the far-right Confederation Party has also been rising.