(ANSA-AFP) - WARSAW, 04 GIU - Half a million protesters
packed the streets of central Warsaw on Sunday, Poland's
opposition organisers said claiming one of the biggest
anti-government demonstrations in the 30 years since the end of
communism. Lech Walesa, a former Polish president, Nobel Peace
Prize winner and leader of the fight against communism, joined
opposition figures at the head of the march ahead of legislative
elections in the autumn. People travelled from across the
country after former prime minister Donald Tusk, head of the
centrist opposition party Civic Platform (PO), called for the
protest against "the high cost of living, swindling and lying,
and for democracy, free elections and the EU". The leaders of
most opposition parties encouraged their supporters to join the
march against the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) led by
Jaroslaw Kaczynski. "City Hall estimates (the number of
protesters) at 500,000 now," the organisers' spokesman Jan
Grabiec told AFP. Decked out in the red and white colours of the
nation, demonstrators carried placards proclaiming "Enough's
enough", "No to authoritarian Poland" and blaming the ruling PiS
party for exorbitant prices. Once the head of the European
Council, Tusk addressed the crowds saying the opposition's role
is "of comparable importance" to that in the 1980s and the fight
against communism. Walesa, who led the Solidarity union in a
successful battle against communism, has long been absent from
politics. He told the marchers he had been "patiently" waiting
for the day when the nationalist party and Kaczynski will be
forced out. "Mr. Kaczynski, we have come to get you. The day has
finally arrived," Walesa said. The June 4 protest march day is
the 34th anniversary of the first partly free elections held in
Poland which were followed by the defeat of communism in Europe.
Walesa became the nation's first democratically elected
president in 1990. sw/bp/imm
/ (ANSA-AFP).
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA