'Brexit can happen here', Poles demonstrate in support of EU membership
More than 100,000 Poles demonstrated on Sunday (October 10) in support of European Union membership after a court ruling that parts of EU law are incompatible with the constitution raised concerns the country could eventually leave the bloc.
According to the organisers, protests took place in over 100 towns and cities across Poland and several cities abroad, with 80,000-100,000 people gathering in the capital Warsaw alone, waving Polish and EU flags and shouting "we are staying".
"Just as Brexit suddenly became a fact, something no-one expected, the same thing can happen here," said Janusz Kuczynski, 59, standing in a street in Warsaw's historic district leading up to the Royal Castle.
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Fellow protester Maciej Lewandowski, 50, said he was worried Poland was turning away from the "European reality" and would end up in a similar political situation to Russia.
Politicians across Europe voiced dismay at the ruling by Poland's Constitutional Tribunal on Thursday (October 7) which they saw as undercutting the legal pillar on which the 27-nation EU stands.
Poland's ruling Law and Justice party says it has no plans for a "Polexit", but Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said after the ruling each member state must be treated with respect and the EU should not be only "a grouping of those who are equal and more equal".
