Warsaw’s mayor, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, and her office “have chosen to support parties who outright connect themselves to the criminal idea of communism”.
During the commemoration of the Wola Slaughter in 1944 organized by the Warsaw City Hall, the wreaths put down by members of the ONR were carried down to the end of the line. Although all the other wreaths were announced by a speaker, the ONR’s were not.
The member of Razem later wrote on Twitter, “I am proud that thanks to our initiative, the ONR delegation was not announced during the laying down of wreaths. I am terrified, that some would come with phalange symbols on their arms to commemorate the victims of the Wola Slaughter.”
The ONR is not a banned group. Nor is the phalange a banned symbol. Some argue that we have come to a moment in which the Warsaw City Hall does as communist groups tell them to.
Another incident occurred when the ONR’s annual Warsaw Uprising march was cancelled by the City Hall. Such decisions are taken when the participants are behaving aggressively, vandalizing public property or attacking police officers.
According to the City Hall, the march was stopped because one of the participants was found with a banned symbol – the hammer and the sickle. The fact that the symbol was crossed out and an anti-communist slogan was written under it was somehow ignored.
Ryszard Makowski concludes that he hopes, that during the local elections in Warsaw in November, it will be possible to push away from power from those who would cultivate anti-Polish sentiments.
