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Warsaw (AFP) – Poles mark a century of independence on Sunday amid tensions in the remote and deeply polarized country of the prominent role that marginalized far-right groups.
Chaos engulfed plans for the state military parade in Warsaw days ahead of the centenary, as far-right groups vowed to use the same road and timing for their controversial annual independence day march.
Last year's edition of this global march outrage when some participants displayed racist and anti-immigrant banners and slogans. Its organizers include the National Radical Camp (ONR), a marginal group with roots in an anti-Semitic pre-World War II movement.
In law, the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government and allied President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday announced the state military parade, insisting that it had legal priority.
But the far-right groups refused to back down after a short period of time.
The PiS government spent Friday in a tug of war with far-right groups over the scheduling of the two events. The sides confirmed late Friday that they would coincide.
National Neo-Nazi Gold, "PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki" has been decisively "moved to act", "something that is illegal in Poland".
The US, Canadian and Ukrainian embassies issued warnings about the possibility of violence in connection with the market, while many Poles have expressed dismay.
"Wojciech has a 67-year-old Warsaw cabbie who has declined to provide his surname," said AFP on Sunday.
"It's very sad and disappointing," he said.
– Race collision –
Underscoring Poland's growing isolation in the European Union since the PiS took office in 2015, no senior delegations from fellow EU states are due to show up for the centenary coinciding with the Armistice that ended World War I.
The government has put a controversy on the subject of controversy with the European Union.
EU President Donald Tusk, a former Polish Prime Minister, was the only senior representative in Warsaw on Sunday.
"Forgive us Poland … we love you!" Tusk said urging national unity early Sunday, remarking that the Poles "sometimes argue too much" about their country as they grow ugly at the statue of independence leader Marshal Jozef Pilsudski in Warsaw.
Speaking on Saturday, Tusk likened the PiS to "contemporary Bolsheviks" who must be "defeated".
He also reiterated that the PiS could unwittingly have a "polexit" from the EU despite its strong popularity among Poles and the many insurances of PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski that his party has no such designs.
Widely regarded as Poland's de facto powerbroker, Kaczynski has played a key role in the domestic and foreign policy. He and Tusk are arch-rivals.
– 'Most successful' –
Poles will break nationwide at the stroke of noon on Sunday to sing the national anthem. It will be a rare show of unity in the EU and NATO country of 38 million people who have become more polarized under the PiS.
Whereas robust economic growth along with the government's generous social measures and conservative stance have garnered it support in rural areas, judicial proceedings have sparked outrage among urban centrists and liberals.
But Norman Davies, an Oxford historian and a renowned authority on Poland, insists that despite the recent turmoil "Poles have never had it so good".
Before November 1918, Poland did not exist at all for 123 years, carved up between the Prussian, Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.
"From all those countries (that regained independence in 1918), Poland has been the most successful … not only in economic terms but also in terms of political stability, constitutional consensus and geopolitical security" in NATO, Davies said, speaking at recent security conference in Warsaw.
