Prominent Poles blast allocation of state funds to far-right organizations

A group of prominent Poles has condemned the funding of farright, racist organizations in Poland, including groups that have embraced antisemitism in the past.

The government recently allocated three million zloty, some €660,000, to the Patriotic Fund, which is overseen by the minister of culture and national heritage, who will distribute money to three highly problematic groups.

One of them is the association that oversees the annual Independence March, which has frequently displayed antisemitic sentiments.

Two other groups that will receive funding are the All-Polish Youth and the National Guard Association.

One of the senior organizers behind the Independence March is far-right activist Robert Bakiewicz of the fascist National-Radical Camp, which seeks an “ethnically homogeneous” Poland. Bakiewicz has referred to Jews as “a fifth column.”

The National-Radical Camp could legally be described as fascist, the Polish Supreme Court ruled earlier this year.

During the 2017 Independence March, organized by Bakiewicz and the National-Radical Camp, demonstrators called for “a Jew-free Poland” and “Jews out of Poland.” The Israeli Foreign Ministry filed a complaint with the Polish authorities.

The marches are also frequently used to express opposition to claims by Jews for reparations for Jewish-owned property that was confiscated by the Polish Communist regime after World War II.

Last year, a truck with a banner that said “No to Jewish demands” participated in the march.

All-Polish Youth was founded in the 1920s as an ultranationalist and antisemitic organization. It was reinstituted more recently as a rightwing, Catholic nationalist and antigay group associated with the farright National Movement Party.

Last week, All-Polish Youth activists dumped tons of bricks and other debris outside the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw to protest Israel’s criticism of Polish legislation that would stymie Jewish claims for property restitution.

Also last week, 160 prominent Polish public figures and academics signed a petition that called on Culture and National Heritage Minister Piotr Glinski to not fund these groups.

The signatories included Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich, film director Agnieszka Holland, veterans of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and dozens of journalists, intellectuals, academics and figures involved in the Polish arts.

“Are you ready to take responsibility for the fact that public money will be used – as shown by the many years of practice of the Independence March organized by Robert Bakiewicz – for violence, intimidation, training in the use of weapons, pyrotechnics, setting fire to property, propaganda materials promoting hate speech and the extermination of ‘enemies of the motherland?’” they wrote.

“We strongly urge all people of good will, especially those with socially recognized achievements, to use their authority to publicize the shameful fact that our state finances initiatives that openly promote homophobia, religious and ethnic hatred.

“We all have the right to live in a country that will not resemble the darkest pages of the history of the 20th century,” the signatories wrote.