Dubbed “The March of a Million Hearts,” the rally marched through downtown Warsaw on Sunday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The demonstration had been called by Poland’s main opposition leader Donald Tusk, who heads the centrist Civic Coalition (KO) group.
Participants carried flags of Poland and the European Union, party symbols and banners with anti-government slogans, which they also wore on their shirts, the PAP news agency reported.
Around a million people attended the march, Warsaw City Hall said. Police spokesman Sylwester Marczak declined to confirm or deny the figure.
Tusk, a former Polish prime minister and president of the European Council, told the rally: “This gathering of more than a million people from all over Poland, one million men and women, children and older people, is the third wave of Solidarity.”
He added that the march signalled “a big change” and “a great Polish revival.”
Tusk told the crowd: “I would like to officially swear that we’ll win, hold the current government to account, right the wrongs and reconcile people.”
He vowed: “A day after the elections, we’ll put an end to the Polish-Polish war. If we chase the aggressor away, there will no longer be a reason for war.”
Tusk also said during the event that the “March of a Million Hearts” was a “truly special event” and told the gathering: “You represent a clear majority of Polish society, which has had enough of these dark years.”
Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski said that the opposition sought to win the elections on October 15 to forge “a completely new Poland” that would be “tolerant, diverse, European and smiling,” the PAP news agency reported.
Robert Biedroń, the co-leader of the Left and a member of the European Parliament, said the opposition was united and “ready to win and create a democratic, European, modern government,” the PAP news agency reported.
In August, Poland's lawmakers approved a government plan to combine the parliamentary elections with a nationwide referendum on issues including illegal migration.
Voters will head to the ballot box on October 15 to elect 460 new MPs and 100 senators for a four-year term.
The ruling conservative Law and Justice party and its government coalition allies have maintained a clear lead over the opposition in most recent surveys, polling ahead of the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), the far-right Confederation group, and the Third Way coalition of the rural-based Polish People’s Party (PSL) and the centre-right Poland 2050 grouping.
The ruling conservatives in 2019 won a convincing victory over opposition parties at the ballot box, securing a second term in power.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, rmf24.pl