The city hall did not issue any permits to the Independence March association to organize meetings on November 11 on the route from Dmowski Roundabout to the National Stadium. According to the notifications submitted by the association, one meeting would last several days, officials say
According to the capital city hall, the Independence March association submitted the first notice of the meeting convened from 28:00 on September 28, 2024. 21 on October 28 until 1 on November 12.
“The organizer then submitted another notification, practically identical in content, differing only in the starting date of the planned activity,” officials said.
The program included a stationary meeting at Dmowskiego Roundabout and pl. Parades from 21 October 28 until 14 November 11. In subsequent notifications, the start dates have been changed (from November 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10, respectively). The next stage of the assembly would be a march on November 11 from 2 p.m. to 1 on November 12, 2024 along the route: Al. Jerozolimskie, Poniatowski Bridge, Wał Miedzeszyński (descent from the bridge via a loop), Wybrzeże Szczecińskie, Siwca ending on the grounds of the National Stadium.
“In each notification about the meeting, 100,000 people were declared to participate,” the city hall informed.
City hall doubts
In its refusal, the office noted that the method of submitting notifications about assemblies by the Independence March association does not make it possible to determine which of them is in fact true and will be carried out, because in none of the subsequent notifications did the organizer withdraw from the previously submitted notifications.
The city hall also explained that all these reports were premature. “The term of a meeting is its duration from the beginning to its end. Therefore, only a meeting in its entirety within the time period between 6 and 30 days from its notification (counting from the date of notification to the date of its completion) may be a meeting notified in accordance with the Act.” – it was written.
As the officials emphasized, such activities of the association are aimed solely at gaining a kind of “advantage” over other potential organizers of assemblies convened on November 11, 2024 in the center of Warsaw, and consequently serve to limit the constitutional freedom to organize other assemblies on the National Independence Day.
“Negative impact on the functioning of the city”
Despite this, the city hall asked the Police, Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services and the Municipal Transport Authority to assess the planned meeting.
“The answers that were provided clearly prove that organizing the meeting in the formula adopted by the organizer (in the first notification it is a total of 16 days, in subsequent notifications this number decreases accordingly) will have a very negative impact on the functioning of the city and the activities of the services. emergency services and public transport, leading to traffic paralysis in a large part of Warsaw, which in turn will pose a threat to the health and life of residents,” the city hall said.
The association has the right to appeal against this decision to the District Court in Warsaw.
The Independence March Association announces the cancellation
“The Independence March Association will appeal against the decision that violates the will of tens of thousands of patriots who want to celebrate regaining independence in Warsaw on November 11,” said the association's spokesman, Aleksander Kowaliński.
In recent years, the association has organized the Independence March in the form of cyclical meetings. Currently, it does not have consent to this form of assembly, because the Masovian Voivode issued two decisions refusing to grant the association the status of a cyclical assembly organized on November 11.
There is an investigation
At the beginning of September, the police conducted a search at the headquarters of the Independence March association in connection with an investigation into crimes that allegedly occurred during the march in 2018. The police also searched the house of the former chairman of the Independence March association, Robert Bąkiewicz.
The prosecutor's office is overseeing an investigation into a number of crimes observed during the march. Investigators analyzed recordings from November 11, which recorded how one of the guards of the Independence March issued a criminal threat to another person. It also deals with the content of slogans displayed on banners carried during the march and chanted by the participants
Main photo source: Tomasz Zieliński, tvnwarszawa.pl