WARSAW, Poland—Far-right movements from across Europe joined a march here to celebrate Poland’s 100th anniversary of independence, in what has become an annual gathering point for Europe’s political fringe.
Faced with a rally that has become too large to ban—more than 200,000 joined Sunday’s march—and too politically charged to ignore, President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki walked in front of Sunday’s march. In return for their involvement, they asked organizers to refrain from hate speech and violence.
It was a tacit admission that Poland’s Catholic conservative government can’t entirely expunge such extremists.
No European heads of state attended the 100th anniversary of Polish independence. The U.S. Embassy encouraged Americans to avoid it.
The president of the organizer, the Independence March Association—an umbrella organization consisting of two groups named after fascist youth wings from the 1930s—recently called Polish Jews a “fifth column” disloyal to their nation, while, in the nearby city of Wroclaw, a nationalist figure recently convicted of burning a Jew in effigy planned a simultaneous independence day march. That march was disbanded at the last minute, part of Poland’s crackdown on far-right groups.
In downtown Warsaw, hundreds of similarly dressed young men banged drums, shot flares in violation of municipal law, and chanted “Youth! Faith! Nationalism!” They were members of the All Polish Youth, one of the march’s organizers.
They provided a counterpoint to Sunday’s gathering in France, where European leaders marked the end of World War I with vows to defend the international, liberal order that emerged from conflict.
“The concern I have is that blinkered nationalist views may gain ground once again,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told an audience in Paris on Sunday.
The participation of Poland’s president and premier in the Warsaw march indicated a desire to rein in the extremists. Some 79% of Poles indicated they wouldn’t attend their country’s independence march, a survey by local pollster Ibris said last week.
Previous governments have tried prohibiting the march, resulting in clashes with police. Last week, Warsaw’s city government issued a ban, which a court overturned.
Last Wednesday, Messrs. Duda and Morawiecki said they would hold their own march at the same time on the same central boulevard, and deploy security forces to monitor the crowd for objectionable flags or banners.
Hundreds of soldiers flanked the march. The heads of state and government personally lobbied far-right groups to rein in their speech. Over the weekend, some self-described white-separatist leaders said their homes and offices had been raided by Poland’s internal security service, with one saying about 100 fringe activists had been arrested. There was no confirmation of those arrests.
“I know plenty of people who left Warsaw to get away from this march,” said Jonny Daniels, a prominent Jewish conservative adviser to the government who said he has received regular death threats since calling for a ban on All Polish Youth and the other group behind the march, National Radical Camp. “People are scared and this isn’t where Poland should be on the 100th anniversary of Polish independence.”
Poland has become a beacon for groups who see the country as an ethnically homogenous holdout against the immigration visited on its Western neighbors. The annual march regularly attracts self-described white-separatist movements from across Europe.
“We want to be more decisive and vigilant towards these groups,” Mr. Morawiecki said on Thursday. “We absolutely deny this ideology.”
This year’s march brought Italy’s Forza Nuova, a self-avowed fascist organization, along with nationalist groups from the U.K., Netherlands, and Hungary. Hundreds of Poles calling themselves storm troopers marched behind what some experts said were white supremacists’ symbols, such as the Celtic cross and the black sun, a Nazi symbol.
Most marchers carried Polish flags, a fact the president noted in a short speech: “Let this be a march where everybody feels well,” Mr. Duda said.
Nearby, Ignacy Winksi waved a confederate flag: “We are with any country that fought liberalism. Like the confederacy.”
The march’s popularity shows how once-fringe groups have seized the mantle of patriotism in some Eastern European countries. Some youth here have begun to sour on the European Union. A sense that Western European countries exploit Eastern European youth as cheap labor has produced a sizable portion of Polish youth who view national pride as a rebuke of European unity.
Groups like National Radical Camp have tapped into that sentiment. The group once questioned the veracity of the Holocaust, an uncommon position in Poland. Some of its current leaders disavow prejudice against Jews: “Poland has never been anti-Semitic country,” said Michael Jelonek, spokesman for the group.
Still, they have also held protests against any apology for Polish participation in the Holocaust. The Radical Camp’s ideology calls for an ethnically and religiously pure Poland. Some of its members say they believe Jews are conspiring to bring Muslims into Europe to snuff out Polish identity.
“The organization doesn’t have an anti-Semitic position that we hate Jews for their religion,“ said Jan, a 25-year-old member of the Radical Camp’s chapter in the province of Małopolskie. ”It’s about the extent of Jewish capital invited into the economy. It’s trying to take over and influence Poland.”
The European migrant crisis has bolstered the group, along with its insistence on holding the annual march. Many of the spectators who attend say they disagree with the group’s ideas, but come because the march is the biggest independence day event.
“You can see all kinds of people here, including extremists,” said Rafal, a 24-year-old marcher. “I don’t know how I feel about it. The march should be a place for all Polish people.”
Write to Drew Hinshaw at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
