In Warsaw they burnt down… tolerance

The Independence Day Poland celebrated on November 11 caused a massive outcry in the Russian and Polish media. The celebration can be formally divided into two parts: the official parade, headed by the President Bronislaw Komorowski, and the unofficial part which was the action of the Polish nationalists “The Independence March” under the slogan “Here comes the new generation.” The demonstration of the ultra-right ended up with the attack against the Russian embassy and numerous clashes with the police. The territory of the Russian diplomatic mission was not damaged, however, the demonstrators set on fire the security booth and a trash container. According to the Polish media, the nationalists showered the embassy with fusees and stones and the most active participants of the march even tried to break the gate of the diplomatic mission. Besides, the ultra-rights burned the Rainbow Arch that symbolized the public tolerance. The police were forced to use the rubber bullets and tear gas against the demonstrators. According to AFP, 50,000 people participated in the nationalists’ march. The Warsaw police office reported that in the result of the confrontation at least 19 people were hurt and 72 people were arrested.

“There is no excuse for the hooligans. We condemn the violation of the Venetian convention,” speaker of the Polish Foreign Ministry Marcin Wojciechowski claimed. At the same time he expressed his regrets about the incident in front of the Russian embassy.

Meanwhile, Gazeta.ru reported that the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the carpet the Polish Ambassador in Moscow Wojciech Zajaczkowski.

We phoned the president of the Institute of Public Affairs Jacek KUHARCZYK (Warsaw) and asked him to comment on the recent events in the Polish capital.

Though several months ago the Polish Minister of Internal Affairs [Bartolomiej Sienkiewicz. – Ed.] claimed that he would suppress the activity of the ultra-rights, he has not done anything so far. I hope these events will be a wake-up call for the government that next time they should not be too tolerant with those hooligans. The people who organized the march are united by the ultra-right ideology. Its main element is xenophobia, especially, against the Russians and the Germans, homophobia, etc. Another element of their ideology is political violence: they think that the violence is the way to achieve their political goals. The recent demonstration was not accidental. It was a part of the philosophy of this movement. The Russian embassy was attacked only by a few people, but most of the demonstrators supported those actions. That is why the nationalists believe that Poland they want can be built only through violence. Nationalism needs an enemy. At this time and in this situation the Russians are convenient enemies for them. However, we should not look for any historical excuses for the actions of the Polish ultra-rights since similar things happen not only in Poland. The Nationalists are aggressive cutthroats looking for enemies as they justify their political existence. However, nobody has a good answer how to resist these moods. I think they should be politically isolated.

However, I also think that the Russian government uses the recent events for anti-Polish propaganda that is very strong even now. I would take these nationalists as useful idiots since they are playing into Putin’s hands. They are useful for the Russian government which suffers from xenophobia and homophobia. That is why they are not very ideologically different...