Large pro-EU, anti-government protest held in Poland

Around a quarter of a million people took to the streets in Warsaw to defend Poland’s place in the EU and to protest against moves by the Polish government which they say undermine democracy.

Warsaw City Hall said that the protest drew some 240,000 people, making it one of the largest demonstrations in the country since the 1989 collapse of communism. 

The mammoth protest came as an annual pro-EU parade merged with a demonstration called by a coalition of pro-democracy groups and opposition parties.

The protestors shouted pro-EU and pro-democracy slogans as they inched through Warsaw, brandishing a mix of Polish and EU flags

"We're here because we want to fight for Poland's freedom, for democracy," former president Bronislaw Komorowski told marchers as the demonstration got under way.

The protest comes amid a mounting political crisis in Poland, triggered by changes the Law and Justice (PiS) government has made to the Constitutional Court.

The changes require a two-thirds majority of the 15 judges to support a ruling for it to be valid, and stipulate a quorum of 13 judges for rulings to be valid. Critics have said that the changes mean the court is now unable to scrutinize government legislation.  

The court itself struck down the changes as unconstitutional in March, pitting it against the PiS majority government, which wasted no time to dismiss the ruling. The resulting deadlock means the court is paralysed, leaving Poland without a fundamental check on government powers.

The Council of Europe says the changes undermine the rule of law, and the European Commission has launched an inquiry into changes to the Constitutional Court and media laws.

Recently approved media laws have placed the public broadcaster under a new national media council and have given the treasury minister the right to hire and fire management.

Markets have also reacted strongly to the controversy, hitting Poland's zloty currency and the Warsaw stock exchange.

Ultra-nationalist parties and sympathisers organised a counter-demonstration in the capital on Saturday, drawing around 2,500 people insisting that Poland's EU membership meant it was subject to the "diktat of Brussels".