Many things will change in Poland in the coming years, as the coalition led by liberal Donald Tusk finally comes to government, breaking the era when political power in Warsaw was identified solely with Law and Justice (PiS). Ultraconservative party (and Giorgia Meloni’s ally in Europe) that governed the country from 2015 to 2023.
And some things are already changing, with the new administration aiming to create a radical break with the recent past. This applies, for example, to efforts to restore pluralism in the media sector or to complete the separation of church and state and preserve the independence of the judiciary.
But the change in tone also includes openness towards the LGBTQ+ community, which has become the target of constant attacks, incitements to hatred and discrimination of all kinds under the nationalist right: think gays or transgenders are often considered “deviants”. He said that he was “sick” and that even “Lgbt-free”, that is, “free” zones were created in the country by members of this community.
But now there is a brand new Ministry of Equality, led by Katarzyna Kotula, an MP elected with the left-wing party Lewica, a member of the heterogeneous government coalition that also includes Tusk’s centrist party Civic Platform (Po). and Terza via (Trzecia Droga), a rather eclectic union between two entities representing farmers’ interests (Psl and Polska 2050).
Kotula is currently working on a new law on civil unions (the last one dates back to 2003) because, as he puts it, “LGBTQ+ people have waited too long for equality.” It looks like the bill will be voted on in the Polish parliament by March; This is with an urgency that comes from the recent decision of the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, which found that same-sex couples are not recognised. Part of Warsaw violates human rights.
In reality, the three parties currently in power agreed to only prosecute hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community, without going any further in the coalition agreement. In fact, there is a certain distance between the government partners, although it is not very deep. To confirm this distance, the Third Way announced that it would oppose legal recognition of same-sex marriage; Instead, there is a struggle waged by Lewica. But even on the decidedly less controversial issue of civil unions, there is still no certainty about how PSL MPs, the most conservative wing of the Third Way, will vote.
Poland is one of five EU countries, along with Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia, that still do not allow same-sex couples to formalize their relationships (Latvia has no longer been part of this group since November last year). In the “Rainbow Europe” rankings compiled annually by ILGA-Europe, a Brussels-based NGO, Poland has been repeatedly ranked as the worst member country for LGBTQ+ people since 2020.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
