On the banks of the Vistula, the new leaders in power intends to impose its progressive agenda as quickly as possible.
After announcing a global reform of the financing of the Church, which opens the door to the further separation between Church and State, the legalization of homosexual unions is looming on the horizon 2024.
The new Polish government coalition does not intend to waste time.
Barely having come to power, putting an end to eight years of rule by the conservatives of the Law and Justice party (PiS), Donald Tusk and his circumstantial allies announced their firm desire to legalize unions between people of the same sex.
It is a notable development compared to the coalition agreement signed for the elections which did not explicitly mention this legalization so as not to offend voters, but which committed to “pursuing anti-LGBT hate speech.”
It will come as no surprise to find shades of pink within the government coalition: if the radical left party Lewica defends total equality between heterosexual and homosexual marriage, Trzecia Droga – the center-right “Third Way” – advocates for simple civil recognition of same-sex couples.
“The law on civil partnerships should have been adopted a long time ago, we are already in the 21st century,” said Szymon Holownia, a member of Trzecia Droga elected shortly before Christmas as president of the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament, who added that it was “not the time to legislate on same-sex marriage.”
But we already know in France that the PACS was quick to morph into “marriage for all” under the leadership of progressives, and that the arguments of conservative opponents, particularly Catholics, accused of reactionary or even of intolerants and haters, were swept away by the executive. It was more than ten years ago, but the recipe remains the same.
The new Minister of Equality, Katarzyna Kotula – from Lewica – announced that the project liberalizing homosexual unions would probably be presented “by the end of January or the beginning of February 2024.”
Part of the Trzecia Droga formation – the conservatives of the Polish People's Party (PSL) – are divided on the issue, and their leader announced that he would not give voting instructions to Parliament: a way of not blocking a future project which will have to rely on some of the twenty-eight deputies that make up the PSL, to be voted on.
The new Polish executive received, as expected, the support of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which considers that fundamental human rights remain “violated” as long as homosexual unions are not recognized.
Moreover, in 2020, an NGO obligingly hosted in Brussels – Rainbow Europe – placed Poland at the top of the ranking of the worst countries in Europe in terms of LGBT rights.