Independence Day march fills Warsaw as crowd size stays disputed

Warsaw city hall put the turnout at about 250,000, organisers at up to one million, as flares and firecrackers defied a city ban. Police secured more than 450 pyrotechnic items across the route.

Hundreds of thousands marched through Warsaw on Independence Day, while the size of the crowd itself turned into a dispute. Warsaw city hall, the capital's administration, put the turnout at about 250,000 people. The organisers of the Independence March gave their own estimate, saying between 500,000 and one million people had taken part.

Crowds dressed in Poland's white and red chanted that this is Poland, not Brussels, and that the prime minister is not supported here, alongside the official motto that a Pole is the host in Poland. One banner read: there will be no innovation in a country of mass immigration. It was the 17th Independence March.

The 2026 Independence March set off from Dmowskiego Roundabout shortly before 3 pm and headed toward Poniatowski Bridge, PAP reported. President Karol Nawrocki crossed the bridge with the crowd before leaving the procession on the other bank of the Vistula. Politicians from the right-wing opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party and the far-right Confederation walked the route too. Constitutional Tribunal judge Bogdan Swieczkowski joined them, suspended from his duties as tribunal president by the court's longest-serving judge, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska.

Flares and loud firecrackers went off along the whole procession, in defiance of a municipal ban. Commissioner Wiśniewski of the Warsaw Metropolitan Police said that despite a ban issued by the voivode, the regional authority, officers found pyrotechnic materials with 86 people and secured more than 450 items. He said policing an event of this scale was the police's most important challenge, especially after the recent attack in Kraków.

Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski told a briefing at the city's security centre that, apart from the pyrotechnic violations, Independence Day gatherings across the capital went peacefully. He said he hoped it would stay that way until the end of all the marches. Earlier that day, President Nawrocki, Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and General Wiesław Kukuła took part in the ceremonial changing of the guard. From Piłsudski Square, where the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier stands, Nawrocki told ambassadors that Poland cannot be divided on security matters and will be a solid, stable and predictable ally.