Polish ‘Stop Banderyzmowi’ Starts Signature Drive for Anti‑Banderyzm Bill

The Committee for Legislative Initiative “Stop Banderyzmowi” has launched a nationwide collection of signatures to support a draft law that would criminalise the propagation of the ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), as well as the denial of crimes committed against Poles. The proposal seeks to impose penalties comparable to those for promoting communist or fascist ideologies and aims to gather 100,000 signatures within a 90‑day period after its registration on 22 July.

Organisers, including the National Movement, Młodzież Wszechpolska, the Institute of Memory and Heritage of the Eastern Borderlands, and the Institute of the Heritage of the Cursed Soldiers, say the initiative is a defence of historical truth and not an anti‑Ukrainian measure. Committee representative Jakub Banaszek, president of Chełm, emphasised that the bill is intended to protect the memory of the victims of the Volhynian massacres and to provide the state with tools to counter hate‑provoking propaganda.