Thousands of people attended an opposition rally in Warsaw on Sunday, two weeks before parliamentary elections which the liberal Political Platform (PO) says could determine Poland’s future in the European Union and its democratic status.

Polls show the government of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party is likely to win the election, but may struggle to secure a majority amid discontent over rising living costs and concerns about the erosion of democratic checks and balances.

The opposition hopes that today’s “course of a million hearts”, as former prime minister and head of PO Donald Tusk called it, it will be the biggest in decades and will mobilize voters to participate in the elections.

“The big change is coming. This is a sign of Poland’s rebirth,” Tusk told crowds gathered in Warsaw’s central square, many waving Polish and European Union flags.

Tusk, a former president of the European Council, has said that PiS may intend to take Poland out of the EU, something the party denies, and has called the election critical for minority and women’s rights.

PiS, in power since 2015, campaigned on a promise to keep migrants out of Poland, saying the issue was critical to national security, and to continue funneling money to families and the elderly.

“I want to be free to be in the EU, I want to have a say, I want to have free courts,” said Hanna Cacsiewicz, a 59-year-old dentist from Otwok, a town outside Warsaw.

PiS denies Western criticism that has undermined democratic norms, and argues that his reforms to the judicial system are intended to make the country fairer and rid it of the remnants of communism, while the changes he brings to the public media will free them from foreign influence.

But it still does not have access to billions of euros from the EU Recovery Fund that Brussels is withholding because of reforms to the Polish judicial system.

“Everyone is investing in creating jobs, in fighting climate destruction. And we are deprived of this money because someone decided to destroy democracy in Poland,” Warsaw Mayor Rafau Czakowski told the crowd.