‘Polexit’ fears spark mass pro-EU protests across Poland

Ruling by country’s constitutional court has put Poland on collision course with Brussels

One protester holds up a sign that reads: ‘One leader, one party, one creed. Once it was Stalinism, now it it’s Kaczynski-ism’ (AP)

Tens of thousands of Poles have taken part in pro-EU protests after a ruling by the nation’s constitutional court inflamed tensions with Brussels.

Protesters fear that the court ruling, which found that parts of EU law were incompatible with the Polish constitution, could force the country to leave the European Union.

Thousands of people waving EU flags filled Warsaw’s historic Castle Square on Sunday evening, some of them chanting “We are staying!”

Donald Tusk, leader of the main opposition party Civic Platform, had called for the protests to support Poland’s continued membership of the European Union.

Speaking to the crowd, Mr Tusk denounced the actions of the ruling Law and Justice party under leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

He warned that a “pseudo court, a group of people dressed in judge’s gowns and on the order of the party’s leader, in violation of the Polish constitution”, had “decided to lead our homeland out of the EU”.

“After all, we know very well why they want to leave the European Union, in fact in order to violate citizens’ rights with impunity, to violate democratic principles and to steal without restraint,” he added.

Mr Kaczynski has denied that he wants Poland to leave the EU. Popular support for membership of the bloc remains very high in Poland.

Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s prime minister described “Polexit” as “fake news”. He stressed that all of Poland’s obligations resulting from EU law “remain in force”.

“The union is too serious a community to be taken into the realm of fairly tales,” Mr Morawiecki tweeted on Monday. “It is a place of mutual benefits, but also of real challenges to all the Union nations.”

One protester, Miroslaw, who was holding a Polish flag, told the Financial Times: “I came here because I don’t want Poland to be outside the EU. I remember what communism looked like and I don’t want Poland to go back to that again. Being here is what being a patriot means to me.”

Demonstrations also took place in many other Polish cities, including Poznan, Krakow, Gdansk and Lublin.

The mass protests were organised in reaction to a ruling by the country’s constitutional tribunal last Thursday.

The ruling, which was issued by a court largely loyal to the government, concluded that the national constitution had primacy over EU law.

It is the latest in a long line of clashes between Warsaw and Brussels. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said on Friday that she was “deeply concerned” by the ruling.

Poland is due to receive some £142m from the EU by 2028 and critics say that the government is putting this funding at risk by picking fights with Brussels.

Kaczynski, the leader of the ruling party, said last month: “There will be no Polexit. That is a propaganda invention which has been used against us many times. We want to be in the EU. But at the same time, we want to remain a sovereign state.”

However, his opponents say that even if the party does not explicitly wish to leave the EU, recent events could lead to greater confrontation with the union – and ultimately a Polish withdrawal.