On Sunday afternoon Warsaw became the scene of 2 political demonstrations of support – 1 for Rafał Trzaskowski, the another for Karol Nawrocki. Both events took place at the same time, in akin locations, but with other directions of the march and... completely different estimates of attendance.
Two electoral committees – Citizens' Platform and Law and Justice – organised competitive street events. Supporters of Rafał Trzaskowski, a candidate of KO for president, passed the way from Bank Square to Constitution Square. Parallelly, but in the other direction – from the roundabout de Gaulle to Castle Square – the participants of the event supporting Karol Nawrocki, a candidate supported by the Law and Justice.
Both marches began at noon and ran peacefully, as confirmed by the Police Capital Command.
Diversified data on the number of participants
Spokesman of Law and Justice Rafał Bochenek announced that Karol Nawrocki took part in the “March for Poland” 150 000 people. Even before the event began, he pointed out on social media that more than 100,000 participants had already attended the de Gaulle roundabout. During the day, organizers raised estimates – from 100 1000 to 200 thousand.
In a completely different tone, Wiolent Paprock, the chief of staff of Trzaskovsky, spoke about around 100 thousand people on the large Patriot March.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, 1 of the leaders of the KO, summed up the event on social media with the words: "half million people". Trzaskowski himself repeated this number, writing about “half a million. People. Which is about Poland".
Political clippings and independent estimates
Such a advanced turnout was challenged by the Euro MP of the Sovereign Poland Patrick Jaka, who ironized on platform X: “If it was half a million people, I am Julius Caesar”. This is not the first time politicians have argued about the number of manifestations – independent sources frequently give different numbers than organizers themselves.
By unofficial capital service data, which is quoted by PAP, about 1 associate participated in the march of support for Trzaskowski 140 000 people, while in the march behind Nawrock – around 50,000.
Security and organisation
Both events were secured by the police and, despite a immense number of participants, went smoothly. Parallel marches, although politically antagonistic, were held without major incidents. Warsaw was paralyzed for respective hours, but there were no clashes or major disturbances.
