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Photograph: Marcin Wziontek/REX/Shutterstock
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“Your-bike’s-bust-ed! ” we chant at him, but he’s inordinately pleased with himself.Īnti-gay protesters stage a counter-protest. He’s like a sozzled uncle at a wedding who thinks he’s a great comedian. We pass a guy with a beer belly bulging from under his T-shirt like risen dough from a bread tin he’s wielding a snapped-off pedal (in Polish, pedał means a bike pedal, but also “faggot”), twirling it with abandon. There’s also non-stop chanting: “Fuck-off-out-of-it! But the Pride march gathers strength we start chanting too, drowning out their shrieks. There’s non-stop whistling, and bangers exploding. We pass a girl of about 20, with very fine features.She stops and takes a break, facing away from the front of the march she has a huge, bleeding lump on her forehead, the size of a plum her brother strokes her arm and, with a smile, she says something about how everyone’s looking, so she combs her hair the other way with her fingers to cover up the mark. The whole way, we march amid the stench of rotten eggs the cobbles are covered in yellow gunk. The fact that those rosaries, those crosses, those icons of Jesus they’re holding up are soiled with filth, interlaced with the ugliest words of all, with linguistic excrement, is an act of blasphemy no Polish bishop will ever condemn.
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But with masks instead of their usual faces, which are altered in a nightmarish way, their eyes full of blood, their voices raucous, yelling, “fuck, arse, faggots”. These are ordinary, thoroughly ordinary people: nice Mr Kowalski from the allotments, Mr Nowak who goes to the local shop, Mr Wolski from No 6. Sometimes one holds a woman by the hand, but this is a men’s club: hooligans old and young some in neo-fascist attire, others like typical uncles or grandads, holding shopping bags, with sagging cheeks and comb-overs work-worn blokes in down-at-heel shoes, sweat stains under their arms. These are ordinary people, but with eyes full of blood, their voices raucous, yelling 'fuck, arse, faggots' Jacek Dehnel He’ll be with us for a good hour and a half now and then, his nice, tanned face will loom up, distorted with rage, but plainly with fascination, too. A skinny little guy comes running after us for just about the entire march. They are chanting, “Fags out!” (to the tune of the Pet Shop Boys’ Go West), which is also written on their shirts.Īltogether, there’s plenty of sexual reference: sex is pouring from their mouths, throats and eyes. And everywhere there are hands showing the finger, lots and lots of those middle fingers, to say, “Fuck you, faggots”. Most of all, they bellow insult after insult, some in gangs, others individually, some with their own crazy monologues. The police cordon isn’t “tight”, as the press later reported – there are big gaps near us, so now and then hoodlums lunge at the marchers, ripping their placards to pieces and threatening to beat them up. There’s a stink of rotten eggs and lots of abusive shouting. Beneath a monument on the far side of the square there are hooligans, with flags, and in the centre there’s the rather inconspicuous parade with its rainbow flags. I was supposed to be making a speech at the opening, but it’s out of the question – this is like a riot. When things start to calm down, we stand in the doorway and look around to see what we should do.Īfter hiding behind some police cars, we reach the square. My friend M thinks they’ve set fire to a car, but these are smoke bombs.
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Thugs run past the windows, one of them carrying a burning rainbow flag. I do up the shoulder strap on her dungarees, and we make sure none of her things are lost, because she had to pick them up from the pavement and put them in her backpack. “Do something, Mummy,” she wails, “get me out of here, I’m scared.” Moments later, a trembling teenage girl rushes in, with what’s left of her ripped handbag hanging from her shoulder she tries to call the friend with whom she was marching but he was attacked again and they’ve lost phone contact. The staff are horrified and there’s a frightened girl of about 10 with her mother (they probably weren’t going to the march). Some in the crowd run away, but more of the “warriors”, beefy men with angry faces, go for them. Just before the square, we can see gangs of thugs 10 metres ahead of us, attacking people: a large guy in a red balaclava is kicking everyone in sight, including some teenage girls, with the full weight of his body.
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So we turn into Blues Avenue, then into Suraska Street. We continue along Skłodowska Street towards the square from where the march is meant to start, but some people are running away from there and heading down another street, because marchers are being hit.