Polish riot police used truncheons in Warsaw on Sunday to break up a crowd of rightwing extremists pelting them with firecrackers and lumps of concrete after a parade to mark the national holiday turned violent.
Thousands of police had earlier lined the streets of the capital to try to stop rightwing nationalists and radical leftwing groups from using the independence day holiday as an opportunity to fight each other.
It was the second year the celebrations had degenerated into violence, underlining the deep gulf between those who want a conservative, religious society that rejects foreign influence and those who want Poland to join the European mainstream.
As demonstrators gathered for the rightwing rally, young men with their faces covered by scarves chanted nationalist slogans and railed against supposed Jewish conspiracies.
Read more: Polish police clash with rightwing independence day protesters | World news | guardian.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment