Protest: the engine of social change in Poland

"Satan, get out of here!" shout nationalists at the door of the Church of the Holy Cross in the centre of Warsaw.

"Mary would be with us," the demonstrators reply.

Interactions such as these have set the scene outside churches in Warsaw as tensions worsen surrounding new prohibitory laws on abortion in Poland.

Groups of ultra-right-wingers pray and shout, separated by a police cordon from a crowd demonstrating with pro-choice banners and rainbow flags.

It is an example of the social division in Poland, and yet it is also a case for the new sense of unity that has been established among some demonstrators, with feminist groups marching alongside LGBTQ groups.

The initiative to restrict abortion by the ultra-conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) has led to a revolt in the streets, uniting the people against the government.

Poland is witnessing its largest protests in 30 years. The previous ones in 1989 led to the fall of the communist regime and the arrival of democracy.

The Polish are once again taking to the streets of the country's major cities, where more than half a million people have protested in the last month and a half.

Abortion is permitted in Poland in the event of three cases: rape, danger to the life of the mother or birth defects.

However, the new proposal — approved by the Constitutional Court but pending a final parliamentary vote — would block the right to terminate a pregnancy due to birth defects, which account for 98 per cent of the just over 1,000 legal abortions each year in Poland.

Pro-choice organisations claim, however, that between 80,000 and 120,000 Polish women terminate their pregnancies each year at home or by travelling abroad.

Although abortion is the most topical issue, protests against the government began in 2016, when the judicial system was reformed and deprived of its independence.

The Law and Justice Party and its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, have always sought an enemy to unite their supporters in defending its claim over so-called traditional values.

For years it was migrants from Syria, but then they chose a new target: the LGBTQ community, which led to another series of protests.

This calculated approach intensified frustrations for many across a range of issues, helping to incite the recent reaction to anti-abortion laws.

"It indeed accumulates many of the issues of the protests before, it's driven by the women's rights agenda, the anti-abortion issue is the main driving issue propelling the protesters, but many other issues come on board, and the rage in the society, it proliferates on all the other aspects of previous protests as well," said Wojciech Przybylski, a journalist and political scientist.

The organisation behind the latest wave of demonstrations is "Strajk Kobiet" (“Women's Strike”), which was founded in 2016 at the beginning of the protests.

One of its leaders, writer Klementyna Suchanov, echoes a similar point: "It is an accumulation of things.

“I would say that the most important thing at the moment is the judicial system. What we have now, in times of the pandemic, seems to take all the problems that existed before to a higher level."

Protests for LGBTQ rights in recent years were more discreet than the current feminist ones and contained fewer female supporters. Suchanov saw the cause as being one of social conservatism and propaganda.

The youth have not yet accepted the ultraconservative ideas of the government. They are being "educated by Netflix," according to Marcin Horala, a PiS lawmaker.

However, many reject this idea and instead praise the youth for standing up for their values.

Suchanov explained: "Young people are fighting for the LGBTQ issue, women's rights and education. Because they are ashamed of the country. As Polish people, they don't feel good in this ultra-conservative context. They are young people who were born within the European Union, many are under 18."

Hubert Sobiecki, one of the leaders of the pro-LGBTQ rights association "Milosc Nie Wyklucza" (“Love Doesn't Discriminate”), is happy to see the support of young people.

"I hope that this is a sign of the growth of a new generation for whom these are their first protests, their first opportunity to leave home and try to change something in their country. The first time to get away from the overwhelming indifference and feel that something can be changed."

The push to accept new social changes and progressive ideas is a welcome change for many, and encourages much of Polish society to adopt a less conservative and exclusionary view of some issues.

Old taboos have been left behind and now women and LGBTQ supporters are fighting side by side for their basic human rights.