On 11 November 2013, Warsaw once again witnessed the Marsz Niepodległości (Independence March), one of Europe’s largest far-right gatherings. Under the slogan Idzie nowe pokolenie! (“A new generation is coming!”), the organisers—Młodzież Wszechpolska and ONR—presented the event as the symbolic rise of a renewed nationalist youth. Tens of thousands joined the march, filling the city centre with Polish flags, flares and chants calling for national sovereignty and cultural purity.
Although framed as a patriotic celebration, the 2013 march was marked by a series of violent incidents across Warsaw. Alongside the clashes with police near the Russian Embassy, far-right groups carried out coordinated attacks in other parts of the city. One of the most notorious was the assault on the anarchist-leftist squat Przychodnia, where masked participants threw stones, set fires and attempted to break into the building. Residents barricaded themselves inside while police intervened to prevent a full-scale attack.
Another symbolic target was the famous Tęcza (“Rainbow”) installation on Plac Zbawiciela — a public art piece often interpreted by nationalists as a symbol of LGBTQ visibility. A group of march participants set the structure on fire, completely engulfing it in flames as crowds cheered. Images of the burning rainbow arch became one of the defining visuals of Independence Day 2013, revealing the cultural dimension of the far-right mobilization: a rejection not only of political opponents, but of pluralism and diversity itself.
Despite these events, organisers insisted the march had been peaceful and blamed “provocateurs” for the violence. However, the scale and coordination of the attacks indicated that extremist elements were an integral, not accidental, part of the mobilization. The 2013 march demonstrated how the Independence March had evolved into a mass ritual of nationalist militancy, capable of shaping public space through intimidation, spectacle and targeted destruction.
Under the banner Idzie nowe pokolenie!, the 2013 edition marked a turning point: the emergence of a confident, confrontational far-right movement able to mobilise tens of thousands, project its identity into the urban landscape and assert dominance through force. The burning of the Tęcza and the attack on the squat became symbols of a political climate in which exclusion, hostility and violence were increasingly normalized within the narrative of “patriotism.”
