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Thousands of people across Poland showed against a controversial ruling by the Constitutional Court and for their country to remain in the European Union.
In Warsaw, demonstrators gathered in the Castle Square. They waved Polish and EU flags, shouting “We stay” and “We are Europe!”
There were also protests in Danzig, Poznan, Szczecin, Krakow and many other cities.

The country's Constitutional Court recently ruled that certain elements of EU law violate the Polish Constitution. It thus gives national law precedence over EU law.
This decision further fuels the conflict between the European Commission and Warsaw over the reform of the Polish judicial system.
Former European Council president and Polish opposition leader Donald Tusk called for the protests.
During his appearance in front of the demonstrators, he accused the conservative ruling party PiS of wanting to lead the country out of the EU.
“Poland's place is in Europe,” Tusk told protesters in Warsaw, “We will win because we are the majority.”
Both Tusk and other speakers were repeatedly interrupted by loud heckling and chants from a counterdemonstration of far-right nationalist groups.
Is ‘Polexit’ next? EU faces crisis after Poland court ruling
In Danzig, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish President Lech Walesa addressed the demonstrators.
“The people who run the state today are a great misfortune for Poland,” Walesa said. No enemy that has ever ruled Poland has divided the people of the country like the PiS, he added
The PiS government has been restructuring the judiciary for years. Critics accuse the party of putting judges under pressure.
The European Commission has already opened several infringement proceedings against Warsaw because of the reforms and has filed lawsuits at the European Court of Justice.


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Poland

Thousands march in cities across Poland, calling for the country to remain in the EU

People take part in a rally in support of Poland’s membership in the European Union in Warsaw, Poland on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

Former Polish president Lech Walesa speaks during a rally in support of Poland's membership in the European Union after the country's Constitutional Tribunal ruled on the primacy of the constitution over EU law, undermining a key tenet of European integration, in Gdansk, Poland, October 10, 2021. Bartosz Banka/Agencja Gazeta via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. POLAND OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN POLAND.

Is ‘Polexit’ next? EU faces crisis after Poland court ruling

People stage a protest in front of Poland's constitutional court, in Warsaw, Poland. Some 80 per cent of Poles support EU membership. Photo: AP

FILE PHOTO: European Union and Polish flags flutter in Mazeikiai, Lithuania April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki leaves the EU-Western Balkans summit at Brdo Congress Centre, near Ljubljana on October 6, 2021. - Western Balkan countries can expect reassurances but no concrete progress on their stalled bids for European Union membership when EU leaders meet today. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Poland to build fence, double troop numbers on Belarus border to halt flow of Middle East migrants

Polish border patrol officers next to a group of migrants stranded on the border between Belarus and Poland near the village of Usnarz Gorny, Poland on Monday. Photo: Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko delivers a speech in Minsk, Belarus May 26, 2021. Press Service of the President of the Republic of Belarus/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo/File Photo

epa09425385 Activists near the town of Usnarz Górny, north-west Poland, 22 August 2021. Another day passes when a group of refugees wander on the Polish-Belarusian border. They want to get to Poland and seek international aid. According to the information provided by the Border Guard, some of the people were taken by the Belarusian guard, and a few new ones were brought, so the group now consists of 24 people. EPA-EFE/Artur Reszko POLAND OUT

Ex-EU chief Donald Tusk returns to frontline politics to lead fight for Poland’s future

Former Polish prime minister Donald Tusk. Photo: AFP

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 12, 2020 file photo, Poland's main ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski wears a mask for protection against the coronavirus in parliament in Warsaw, Poland, during work on new legislation that is to ensure the health and safety of the postponed presidential election to be held this summer. Poland’s governing right-wing coalition lost its slim majority in parliament Friday June 25, 2021, after three lawmakers left it, criticizing government policies — mainly on phasing out coal. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)

People demonstrate and march with flags during the Warsaw Gay Pride parade in central Warsaw on June 19, 2021. - Gay rights have become a flashpoint issue in Poland in recent years under the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which campaigns against what it calls "LGBT ideology", likening the promotion of gay rights to a form of communism. (Photo by Wojtek Radwanski / AFP)

Demonstrators take to Poland’s streets to protest against near-total ban on abortion

Demonstrators carry a banner reading “Women’s Strike” during a protest against imposing further restrictions on abortion law, in Wroclaw, Poland on Friday. Photo: Agencja Gazeta/via Reuters

epa08768771 Polish riot police officers cordon off the participants of 'The Silent Women's March' during their protest against the tightening of the abortion law in front of the Catholic Church curia headquarters in Poznan, west-central Poland, 23 October 2020. Poland's Constitutional Tribunal on 22 October ruled that laws currently permitting abortion due to foetal defects are unconstitutional. Explaining its verdict, the court said that human life was of value in every development phase, and should therefore be protected by law. EPA-EFE/JAKUB KACZMARCZYK POLAND OUT

epaselect epa08768804 People take part in a protest against the tightening of the abortion law in Krakow, southern Poland, 23 October 2020. Poland's Constitutional Tribunal on 22 October ruled that laws currently permitting abortion due to foetal defects are unconstitutional. Explaining its verdict, the court said that human life was of value in every development phase, and should therefore be protected by law. EPA-EFE/LUKASZ GAGULSKI POLAND OUT

Demonstrators march along a street as they protest against imposing further restrictions on abortion law, in Warsaw, Poland October 23, 2020. Jedrzej Nowicki/Agencja Gazeta/via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. POLAND OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN POLAND.

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Demonstrators gathered in Warsaw, Danzig, Poznan, Szczecin, Krakow and many other cities waving Polish and EU flags
The country’s Constitutional Court recently ruled that certain elements of EU law violate the Polish Constitution, giving national law precedence over EU law



The country’s Constitutional Court recently ruled that certain elements of EU law violate the Polish Constitution, giving national law precedence over EU law.


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