A man wearing a historical military uniform salutes during a march marking Poland's independence day, organised by the far-right. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Decade of Hate is a series that covers the dangerous rise of far-right movements across Europe over the past 10 years.
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The hate speech from those in power emboldened bigots, and unleashed a wave of public hostility that’s left the LGBTQ community under attack, often physically so. At events like the 2019 Pride march in the city of Bialystok, marchers were set upon by a hostile far-right mob of hooligans, ultranationalists and Catholic hardliners who assaulted them with impunity.READ: Poland’s ruling party is using homophobia to attract voters“People got attacked. People got chased on the streets. People got beaten up, people got bricks thrown at them, or bottles with piss,” said Ola Kaczorek, co-president of Love Does Not Exclude, a group that campaigns for marriage equality.
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All of which has made the country’s far-right fringe increasingly brazen, buoyed by the country’s sharp lurch to the right under Law and Justice. One of the clearest illustrations of its growing confidence is the annual Independence March in Warsaw, held every November 11 on the anniversary of the restoration of Polish independence in 1918.
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The hateful messaging on display also underlines the many shared positions between the far-right and the government in various flashpoints in Poland’s culture wars.Last year’s march – organised under the theme "Our civilisation, our rules” – had a markedly homophobic tone, echoing the government’s anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. The event was advertised with a poster depicting a knight driving his sword into a rainbow star, while marchers carried banners reading “Normal family, strong Poland” – a slogan used by the Polish right in opposition to LGBTQ rights.
Years of facing a conservative Law and Justice juggernaut in power, and an emboldened far-right brutally enforcing its traditionalist vision of society on the streets, has left liberal and progressive Poles fearing that their country may be slipping away. For minorities, in particular, the sustained attacks on their community has taken a toll.