Opposition leads anti-government march on anniversary of Poland's democratic breakthrough

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's largest opposition party is leading a march Sunday meant to mobilize voters against the right-wing government, which it accuses of eroding democracy and following Hungary and Turkey down the path to autocracy.

Donald Tusk, the country's former prime minister, has called on Poles to march with him for the sake of the nation's future. His party and security officials predicted that tens of thousands of people will join the demonstration.

Media not aligned with the government said it could be among the biggest protests in post-communist Poland as fears grow that a fall election won't be fair.

Supporters of the march have warned that the election might be the nation's last chance to stop the erosion of democracy under the ruling party, Law and Justice.

In power since 2015, Law and Justice has found a popular formula, combining higher social spending with socially conservative policies and support for the church in the mostly Catholic nation.

However, critics have warned for years that the party is reversing many of the achievements made since Poland emerged from communist rule in 1989.

Even the United States government has intervened at times when it felt the government was eroding press freedom and academic freedom in the area of Holocaust research.

Critics point mainly to the party's step-by-step takeover of the judiciary and media. It uses state media for heavy-handed propaganda to tarnish opponents. It has also tapped into animosity against minorities, particularly LGBTQ people, whose struggle for rights it depicts as a threat to families and national identity. A clampdown on abortion rights has triggered mass protests.

The march is being held on the 34th anniversary of the first partly free elections, a democratic breakthrough in the toppling of communism across Eastern Europe. It will be a test for Tusk’s Civic Platform, a centrist and pro-European party which has been trailing in polls behind Law and Justice, but which seems set to gain more support after the passage of a controversial law.

The law allows for the creation of a commission to investigate Russian iNFLuence in Poland. Critics argue that the commission would have unconstitutional powers, including the capacity to exclude officials from public life for a decade. They fear it will be used by the ruling party to remove Tusk and other opponents from public life.

Amid uproar in Poland and criticism from the U.S. and the EU, President Andrzej Duda, who signed the law on May 29, proposed amendments to it on Friday. In the meantime, the law will take effect with no guarantees lawmakers in parliament will weaken the commission's powers.

Some Poles say it could come to resemble the investigations of Joseph McCarthy, the U.S. senator whose anti-communist campaign in the early 1950s led to hysteria and political persecution.

That fear was underlined last weekend when the ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, was asked by a reporter if he still had trust in the defense minister in connection with a Russian missile that fell in Poland in December.

"I am forced ... to view you as a representative of the Kremlin," Kaczynski told the reporter. “Because only the Kremlin wants this man to stop being the minister of national defense.”

The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders expressed concerns that the commission might be used to “wage a witch-hunt against journalists” and “could serve as a new weapon for this type of attack, in which doubt is cast on journalists’ probity in an attempt to smear their reputation.”

Paradoxically, the plans for the new commission appeared to mobilize greater support for Tusk.

Tusk, who is also a former EU council president, had called for the march weeks ago, urging people to demonstrate “against high prices, theft and lies, for free elections and a democratic, European Poland.” The reception was mixed.

Initially some opposition figures planned to stay away. But after Duda signed the law, other opposition leaders announced they would join in.

Law and Justice sought to discourage participation in the march with a video spot using Auschwitz as a theme — drawing criticism from the state museum that preserves the site and adding to the anger against the government.

Poland is expected to hold general elections in October, though a date has not yet been set.