On 29 September, the KKE and KNE together with delegations of communist and anti-imperialist youth organizations participating in the 51^st Festival of KNE –“Odigitis”, held a protest as part of the International Mobilization in Solidarity with the Communist Party of Poland, and delivered a demarche to the Polish Embassy in Athens.

The delegation denounced the unacceptable persecution of the Communist Party of Poland by the Constitutional Court of Poland, which will consider a proposal to ban it on 1 October, with their militant mobilisation and slogans such as “Threats will fail in Poland as well, hands off the communists” and “Solidarity with the peoples’ struggle, no to the persecution of communists”.

Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos, MEP of the KKE, delivered the KKE’s demarche to Ewa Pańczak, the Embassy’s Deputy Head of Mission. He then addressed the crowd, saying: “We are here today outside the Polish Embassy in Athens to denounce  the new anti-communist persecution taking place against the Communist Party of Poland to the Greek people, the youth and all the peoples of the world. On 29 September, Communist and Workers’ Parties from around the world, as well as delegations of Communist Youth Organizations attending the 51^st Festival of the KNE–“Odigitis”, are in front of the Polish embassies to denounce the trial that is to take place on 1 October at the Constitutional Court of Poland with the aim of outlawing the Communist Party. It is an unacceptable and unhistorical trial based on the country’s new Penal Code, which, in line with EU standards, equates socialism–communism with its opposite, its implacable enemy, fascism–Nazism. This is not the first time that such prosecutions have targeted our comrades in Poland. They have again faced court summonses relating to their magazine and activities. There are also people who are being accused of participating in May Day rallies and raising ‘totalitarian symbols’. We will not allow bans on Communist Parties to be imposed in Poland or anywhere else. We stand in militant solidarity with our comrades who are fighting against these measures. We demand the abolition of the Penal Code that equates communism with Nazism. We demand that the persecution of the Communist Party of Poland be stopped, as has been done in the past. Threats will fail in Poland as well. Hands off the communists!”.

The demarche notes, among other things that: “The Polish authorities are engaging in unacceptable slander against communists and are attempting to discredit the struggle for social progress against the exploitation of man by man as totalitarianism.

This is yet another anti-communist persecution that has been reactivated. Since October 2023, new anti-communist changes have been introduced to the Penal Code, including, among other things, the banning of communist ideology and symbols, their unhistorical equation with fascism, and the criminalization of communist activity, which is punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment. Protesters at this year's May Day in Warsaw are also being prosecuted for ‘displaying communist symbols’.

The attack on the Communist Party of Poland is an attack on the dozens of Communist and Workers’ Parties that will continue to condemn the dangerous decisions of the Polish authorities through workers’ and popular protests.

The Communist Party of Greece expresses its unreserved solidarity with the Communist Party of Poland. It supports the inalienable right to free and uninterrupted political expression and action by communists and other activists in Poland. It also condemns the unhistorical equation of communism with fascism by the Polish government and other EU member states, with the support of the EU. It demands that the Polish authorities immediately cease all persecution of communists.

The unacceptable Penal Code must be withdrawn, as must all anti-communist laws and provisions that prohibit the activities of communists and violate even the most basic civil liberties in Poland. Hands off Polish communists!”.

30.09.2025