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WARSAW – The goal was to promote unity and celebrate the sacrifices of past generations in the creation of the modern Polish nation. But after days of quarrels and controversy, Sunday's Independence Day celebration highlighted Poland's deep divisions.
President Andrzej Duda and senior government officials marched through the streets of Warsaw in front of a state-sponsored procession behind a huge red and white Polish flag bearing the inscription "For you, Poland".
And Mr Duda told the crowd that "this march should unite all Poles," adding, "Let this march be for everyone."
But hundreds of meters behind the leaders of the ruling party, the Law and Justice Party, were right-wing activists known for promoting racist, homophobic and supremacist slogans.
Thousands of nationalists crowned with a wreath of red and chanted haze: "Use a sickle, use a hammer, crush the red stripe." Some shouted: "White Poland."
They walked by brandishing a banner with the slogan "God, honor, homeland" and thousands of Polish flags. But some wore balaclavas and waved the green flags of the ultra-nationalist National Revival of Poland. The flags of Forza Nuova, an Italian neo-fascist group, were also visible.
No member of the opposition or public figures close to the government attended the event, which would have attracted 250,000 people, according to the police, and who would have, according to critics, ceded the Independence Day to groups radicals.
The protest, which has resulted in violent clashes with police in previous years, made headlines last year when protesters chanted "Pure Poland, White Poland" and "Refugees, Escape! And that a small group of hard-hitting banners waved the slogan "White Europe of Fraternal Nations".
The organizers challenged the mayor's ban and a Warsaw court eventually joined them, calling the decision "preventive censorship". Before this decision was made, however, the authorities decided to hold a procession instead of the March of Independence, stirring up more anger. nationalists.
Right-wing groups and the government finally decided to join them in forming a two-part procession: one for the officials and one for the nationalists.
Despite the concerns expressed earlier, Sunday's march was a peaceful affair.
But Andrzej Rychard, a sociologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences, called the project a "bad sign". The nationalist government, he said, is now trapped by radical groups after years of "flirting with them".
"As a citizen, I am outraged that the authorities have been unable to force the nationalists to abandon their own banners and stick to Polish flags only," Rychard said. "Nor do I understand how it has happened that nationalists, who are politically irrelevant, have become an equal partner for the government."
The increasingly Eurosceptic government party, which has quarreled with the European Union following the party's attempts take control of the independent justice of Poland, became the first member of the bloc to launch a process that could see the country lose its right to vote.
Political divisions also tainted the official ceremony on Sunday at Pilsudski Square in Warsaw, named in honor of General Jozef Pilsudski, one of Poland's independence fathers.
The most important delegation to the event was led by President Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the head of the Department of Law and Justice, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. But Donald Tusk – the President of the European Council, former Prime Minister and fierce opponent of the government – stood at the backbarely visible, apparently distancing itself from the politicians of the conservative government party.
"I know we often argue about the shape of our country. I know sometimes we do it too intensely, "Tusk said, addressing the crowd. "Forgive us, Poland."
Krystyna Skarzynska, a professor of psychology at the University of Warsaw, said the dynamics of the ceremony reflected "the smallness and hypocrisy" in the words of the main political leaders.
"They told us about this need for unity, but they did not even welcome Donald Tusk at the ceremony," she said in an interview. "They also do not mention Lech Walesa, who played an important role in the independence of Poland."
Mr. Walesa, former president and leader of the Social Solidarity movement, has been a staunch critic of the Law and Justice Party for years and refused to celebrate the anniversary with the government.
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