Women and youth explode against ultra-conservative Poland

10 days have passed since the spark of discontent and social unrest ignited in Poland.

During this time, hundreds of thousands of women and young people have taken to the streets of the main cities of the country to protest as they have not done before against the government.

They have said enough.

They fear losing their rights.

Get further away from Europe.

They reject the traditional, nationalist and Catholic Poland that has been shaping the ultra-conservative Law and Justice party for years.

And for the first time, many Poles openly question the role of the Church to the point of breaking into a Sunday Mass to protest against the political influence of the clergy.

The trigger for this anger was the ruling of the Constitutional Court on October 22 that restricts to the maximum the possibilities of abortion in a country that was already among the most restrictive in Europe in the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.

The ruling that triggered this wave of demonstrations declares abortion due to fetal malformation unconstitutional, which affects 97% of those practiced in Poland.

"This is one more attack on women's rights that we are not going to allow," said a militant Marta Lempart, the most visible face of the women's movement leading the protests last Friday.

Lempart is one of the representatives of the feminist organization Strajk Kobiet (National Women's Strike, in Polish).

“But this now goes beyond rejecting the abortion ruling.

People are very angry.

We have lost the rule of law, there is no judicial independence, the LGTBI collective is attacked, in the pandemic we have seen that they play with our health.

People increasingly hate Kaczynski [deputy prime minister and leader of the government party] He will be seen this afternoon on the street, ”explained the 41-year-old activist.

Under the slogan "All to Warsaw", on Friday afternoon thousands of citizens to the convocation of Strajk Kobiet.

They were more than 100,000 according to the organizers;

50,000, according to authorities.

Oskar Tokarczuk traveled with his friends from Wroclaw to Warsaw (three and a half hours by bus) to attend the demonstration.

He acknowledges that he was somewhat afraid to come to the capital, many have preferred to demonstrate in Wroclaw.

But this group of friends did not want to miss the march in Warsaw.

“We believe that if they are taking away women's rights, they will also take them away from us,” says the 20-year-old dentistry student.

Taped to his forehead, Tokarczuk wears plastic glasses in case the police use pepper spray again against the protesters.

Rejection of the Church

"We have not seen such a strong youth movement since the fall of communism," says Ewa Kulik-Bielinska, director of the

Polish

Stefan Batory Foundation.

"We live in a liberal democracy where individualism prevails, and young people feel that the veto on abortion is an attack on their personal freedom," he adds.

But there are other elements of anger on the part of Polish society, which has been very fractured for years.

Until now few people questioned the rights of the Church.

"The coming to light of pedophilia cases involving Polish priests and the lack of investigation of these abuses have angered part of society," explains feminist writer Agnieszka Graff.

The Dominican priest Michal Pac is concerned about this fed up.

“In Poland we are experiencing a pre-Spanish civil war environment.

Both Marta Lempart and Kaczynski further exacerbate the spirits.

The faithful must be persuaded to return to the churches, but not forced.

Although we are afraid ”, he tells from the monastery of San José, south of Warsaw.

Last Wednesday, Kaczynski, the main architect of the country's authoritarian drift, called for "defending the churches."

The analysts consulted assure that there is nervousness among the party in power.

The PiS did not expect such a reaction from the population.

The ultra-conservative party has suffered the worst drop in voting intention in six years, according to a poll by polling company Kantar.

Discomfort over the management of the pandemic

The unease over the management of the pandemic during the second wave grows every day.

Yesterday Poland, with 38 million inhabitants, broke a new record for infections (21,897).

If in spring the Slavic country was an example of containment, the relaxation of measures in summer and the lack of foresight has led to a real disaster in health management.

This bridge of All Saints Polish cemeteries are closed tight.

The EU's sixth economy has also suffered from the coronavirus and the threat of the country's first recession since the fall of communism in 1989 is more than tangible.

At noon on Friday, some 400 buses blocked traffic in the center of Warsaw in protest at the lack of aid for a sector heavily affected by COVID-19, such as tourism.

“The ranchers, a part of the electorate loyal to PiS, feel betrayed by Kaczynski and his animal law,” adds analyst Ewa Kulik-Bielinska.

This rule prohibits the raising of animals for fur.

Poland is the world's third largest producer of animal skins (mainly mink and foxes) and the second in the EU, after Denmark.

The question is how the government will calm things down.

On Friday, the President of the Republic, Andrzej Duda, announced that he will present a draft amendment to the abortion law to re-legalize the interruption of pregnancy due to fetal malformations, but only in cases where the death of the child is inevitable.

“This will not be enough.

In the next few days a state of emergency will be declared with the excuse of the pandemic and thus repress the demonstrations ”, predicts Kulik.

“Young people have been slow to wake up.

Let's hope they continue like this, ”said 64-year-old Grzegorz Kowalczyk, as he walked alone through the crowd that marched through the streets of Warsaw on Friday demanding freedom.