Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz posted in mid-September that “Political proposals for organizing marches are not attempts at commemoration and building a genuine politics of memory, but instead create further divisions between nations.” This was in reference to conservative opposition MP Dariusz Matecki’s proposal from late August to hold this year’s Independence Day March on 11 November in Lwów, one of the historic cradles of Polish Civilization that later became part of Ukraine.
He explained that “the assistance provided by the Polish state to Poles living in Ukraine is insufficient, and the support previously granted to them is being systematically reduced. Meanwhile, Polish local governments and public institutions fund Ukrainian organizations operating in Poland as well as events related to Ukraine.” It’s this second point that’s the most pertinent to his proposal since many Poles are furious that Ukrainians were allowed to hold an Independence Day March in Warsaw in late August.
Worse still, liberal Mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski was the event’s honorary patron, which was scandalous given Poland’s newfound political and societal tensions with Ukraine over Zelensky’s decision to honor the Volhynia Genocide’s OUN-UPA culprits at the state level earlier this year. The conservative opposition, which was as Ukrainophilic as the ruling liberal coalition presently is before losing power in late 2023 prior to souring on Ukraine a bit right before then, has rebranded itself as critical of Ukraine.
This background contextualizes Matecki’s proposal since he wanted to point out the ruling coalition’s hypocrisy in allowing Ukrainians to march in Warsaw on their Independence Day but opposing Poles marching in Lwów on theirs. The ruling coalition’s allies, like Ukrainian activist and naturalized Polish citizen Natalia Panczenko, are equally hypocritical. She said that she’s “horrified” at the thought of Poles marching in Lwów despite earlier marching with her compatriots in Warsaw.
Her chutzpah prompted Polish activist Małgorzata Zych to retort that “If relations between Poland and Ukraine are supposed to be allied and friendly, then why does such a reciprocal initiative in relations between our countries bother Natalia Panczenko?” The same goes for the ruling coalition. The difference between these two marches is that Ukrainians aren’t discriminated against in Poland despite claims to the contrary while Poles are discriminated against in Ukraine according to the former Polish Ambassador.
Moreover, “Ukraine Has Spent The Past Year Building A Case To Demand Reparations & Land From Poland”, while Poland doesn’t demand any reparations or land from Ukraine. From the perspective of patriotic Poles, Ukrainians holding their Independence Day March in Warsaw under the honorary patronage of the Polish capital’s mayor in the aforesaid context and the earlier-mentioned one of their newfound Volhynia Genocide tensions is a supreme provocation that calls for their own march in Lwów.
Whether they’ll hold it there remains to be seen, but the purpose of this proposal in pointing out the ruling coalition’s hypocrisy and that of their allies like Panczenko has already been achieved, which might leave a lasting impression on voters ahead of fall 2027’s next Sejm elections. The trend is that the ruling coalition will be replaced by one between the conservative and libertarian-nationalist opposition parties. If that happens, then it’ll be due in part to voters being fed up with them favoring Ukrainians over Poles.
