03:16Poland: Far-right nationalist demo met with LGBT counter protest in Warsaw
Hundreds of far-right nationalist anti-LGBT protesters were met with a pro-LGBT counter protest in Warsaw city centre on Sunday.
People at the right wing demonstration burnt a rainbow flag and chanted slogans such as "stop rainbow degeneration," while large numbers of police kept them separate from the counter protest.
"They purposely use a strategy of transgression," All-Polish Youth president Ziemowit Przebitkowski stated towards LGBT defenders, "they want to move the boundaries of public debate with controversy, desecrations, aggression, going out with theirs deviations to public space," he added.
The All-Polish Youth far-right movement is closely linked with the far-right National Movement (RN) party, with the former chairman of the All-Polish Youth, Krzysztof Bosak, securing nearly 7 percent of the vote as the RN candidate in the first round of the recent presidential elections.
The group organised the rally in connection with the case of arrested LGBTQI activist Michal Sz. aka Margot, who was recently placed in pre-trial detention two months, sparking protests in Poland and beyond, with the EU's human rights commissioner also calling for their release last week.
The activist is accused of assaulting an anti-abortion activist as well as damaging their van, and faces up to five years in prison if found guilty.
LGBT rights were a contentious issue in the recent presidential election in Poland, with incumbent and eventual winner, Andrzej Duda, dubbing the LGBT movement a "foreign ideology," and proposing a constitutional amendment to ban LGBT couples from adoption.
03:16Hundreds of far-right nationalist anti-LGBT protesters were met with a pro-LGBT counter protest in Warsaw city centre on Sunday.
People at the right wing demonstration burnt a rainbow flag and chanted slogans such as "stop rainbow degeneration," while large numbers of police kept them separate from the counter protest.
"They purposely use a strategy of transgression," All-Polish Youth president Ziemowit Przebitkowski stated towards LGBT defenders, "they want to move the boundaries of public debate with controversy, desecrations, aggression, going out with theirs deviations to public space," he added.
The All-Polish Youth far-right movement is closely linked with the far-right National Movement (RN) party, with the former chairman of the All-Polish Youth, Krzysztof Bosak, securing nearly 7 percent of the vote as the RN candidate in the first round of the recent presidential elections.
The group organised the rally in connection with the case of arrested LGBTQI activist Michal Sz. aka Margot, who was recently placed in pre-trial detention two months, sparking protests in Poland and beyond, with the EU's human rights commissioner also calling for their release last week.
The activist is accused of assaulting an anti-abortion activist as well as damaging their van, and faces up to five years in prison if found guilty.
LGBT rights were a contentious issue in the recent presidential election in Poland, with incumbent and eventual winner, Andrzej Duda, dubbing the LGBT movement a "foreign ideology," and proposing a constitutional amendment to ban LGBT couples from adoption.