Several thousand police were drafted in to prevent a repeat of last year’s clashes. Violence erupted when a crowd of nationalists pelted police with firecrackers and lumps of concrete.
Police responded by beating marchers with truncheons, forcing them to disperse, Reuters reported. As many as 20,000 people are believed to be taking part in the march through the Polish capital. A smaller march is being held by anti-fascist groups. At least 200 people were arrested last year after clashes broke out as anti-fascist groups tried to blockade the nationalist’s march. Thirty people needed hospital treatment and two media satellite vans were set on fire. Nationalist marches have been growing in size on the national holiday, with leftists turning out to oppose them, the BBC’s Adam Easton reports from Warsaw. Last year’s march dwarfed its predecessors, with numbers swollen by football supporters outraged by a government clampdown on violent fans. To prevent clashes this year the marches are taking different routes. Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has also organised his own Independence Day march with military veterans in an attempt to reclaim the day from what he called “extremists and hooligans”. The 11 November celebration marks the day in 1918 when Poland regained its independence, 123 years after it was divided between Russia, Prussia and the Austrian Empire.