From the very first moments of the marches organized by Rafał Trzaskowski and the Great March for Poland, a noticeable difference could be seen. The march invited by the civic presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki was filled with smiling patriots waving white-and-red flags. In contrast, the march organized by Trzaskowski’s campaign and the Civic Platform featured hateful banners that were handed out for free to participants.
One of the banners, which became widely discussed shortly after the first round of the elections due to the erasure of Sławomir Mentzen’s name, was being held by Arkadiusz Szczurek. He is a well-known provocateur who often participates in anti-PiS demonstrations and disrupts ceremonies at the Smoleńsk disaster memorial.
Our journalist managed to ask Szczurek whether the banner he was holding could be considered hate speech, which Rafał Trzaskowski has vowed to fight against.
“People have different initiatives,” Szczurek said. “If it were ineffective, it wouldn’t be there, and you wouldn’t be paying attention to it,” he added.
He also claimed that on the poster, Nawrocki does not look like a Nazi, but rather like a member of an authoritarian party.
“If that’s a fascist uniform, I agree. Kaczyzm is a form of fascism,” said the provocateur, wearing a shirt with the symbol of eight stars.
When asked who created and printed the poster, he replied that he knew but wouldn’t say.
Among Trzaskowski’s supporters, other hateful slogans could be heard, such as: “This is all of Poland. There are sick people with Nawrocki over there,” and “Just look at those faces over there.”
Journalists from Telewizja Republika also faced hate and hostility from march participants, with vulgarities being hurled their way.
A participant of the march holding a rainbow flag, when asked for a comment for Niezalezna.pl, responded: “F*** off, you a**hole. I’m not talking to f***ing a**holes.”
Meanwhile, Marianna Schreiber was physically attacked by female participants of Trzaskowski’s march.