Poles protest on anniversary of communist-era crackdown 📢

🇵🇱 On Sunday thousands marched in Warsaw and other Polish cities to protest the country's right-wing government, the latest demonstrations after a high court ruled to tighten the country's already restrictive abortion law.

Sunday’s protests coincided with the 39th anniversary of the 1981 martial law crackdown by Poland's communist regime. Many Poles accuse the current government of acting more and more like that authoritarian regime by disregarding the civil liberties of citizens.

Due to a ban on gatherings by more than five people amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the marches were organized as “spontaneous walks" and the slogan was: “We are going for freedom. We are going for everything!"

The protesters gathered at a central intersection and began marching to the home of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the ruling Law and Justice party. Riot police blocked the protesters, forcing them to take another route along the Vistula River to reach Kaczynski's home in the northern Zoliborz district.

Police announced on loudspeakers that the protest was illegal, saying “we have an epidemic." To that the protesters replied: “We have an epidemic of PiS,” using the Polish acronym for Law and Justice. “We are overthrowing the government!”