Poland’s image abroad harmed by a small group of marchers: president

He also said that people brandishing such banners represented a "marginal" proportion of all those taking part in the Independence Day march in Warsaw on November 11.

Groups with such radical views "can be found in every country," Duda told the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily in an interview.

According to Polish public broadcaster TVP Info, a small group of extreme nationalists was responsible for fascist and racist banners that marred the Polish Independence Day march, drawing criticism abroad.

Key political figures in Poland, including President Duda and the leader of the country's ruling conservatives, have distanced themselves from the reported incidents.

Duda said last Monday that “there is no room … in our country for xenophobia, for pathological nationalism, for anti-Semitism.”

The head of Poland’s goverrning conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jarosław Kaczyński, said his group referred to traditions that “have nothing to do with anti-Semitism or racism.”

When asked about the march in a media interview, Kaczyński said that "there were some extremely unfortunate" and "completely unacceptable" incidents during the event, but added that these occurrences were the "fringe of the fringe" and that they were “very likely a provocation.” (gs/pk)

Source: IAR