Polish President Karol Nawrocki has signaled his intent to exercise his right of veto over legislation that, if implemented, would allow unmarried single sex couples to enter into agreements granting them rights which the head of state believes would create an alternative form of marriage.
Parliament on May 29 voted for a government-sponsored bill which allows same sex couples to enter into a contract signed before a notary that grants them a raft of rights currently only available to married couples. These include joint property and tax settlement, access to their partner’s medical information, exemption from inheritance and gift taxes, and the right to decide about their partner’s burial if they die.
Poland’s constitution defines marriage as being exclusively between a man and a woman, and therefore Poland does not have same sex marriage. However, the latest government-backed legislation is an attempt to introduce civil partnerships, which Poland’s Right and the opposition Conservatives (PiS) aligned President Nawrocki see as a stalking horse for same sex marriage.
The government’s bill was the result of a hard-fought compromise within Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centre-left coalition. It took some time for the Left Party, which backs same sex marriage, to agree with the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL), which is suspicious over LGBT right, over the details of the legislation.
The Left Party did not hide the legislation was simply an opening salvo in its quest for same sex marriage in the future. Its equalities minister Katarzyna Kotula in a social media post made clear the legislative move was a signal to the LGBT community ahead of next year’s election.
“Dear LGBT community, I know that this is too little for you. But you have many allies in Parliament and the government who will always fight for you. And this vote will forever remind us that the rights of the LGBT community are human rights.”
The Tusk government last year attempted to legislate in favour of the LGBT community with a bill that would have made LGBT a special category protected against hate speech, but that measure was vetoed by the head of state.
The introduction of civil partnership rights for same sex couples has been consistently opposed by the right-wing opposition parties, PiS and the Confederation party who both have asked Nawrocki to veto it.
Paweł Szefernaker, a senior aide to Nawrocki, confirmed that the President would not be signing the legislation.
“There is not and will not be consent from the president for the introduction or legalisation of civil partnerships,” said Szefernaker.
Nawrocki himself later said that he would not sign a bill that creates “an alternative form of marriage and which undermines the Polish constitution”.
However, the President added that, “if we find solutions that will help those with close relative status to function formally and administratively, without bringing ideological pressure or attempts to undermine the unique status of marriage, I will sign such a bill” but did not go into detail as to what such legislation might entail.
Nawrocki’s veto will be effective since the ruling majority lacks the three-fifth super majority required to overturn a presidential veto and to change the constitution would require an even bigger two-thirds majority.
The debate over the government’s legislation has come in the wake of recent developments which have seen the Tusk government recognising same-sex marriages conducted in other EU member states after a ruling to that effect made by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
Earlier this month Warsaw and Wrocław became the first Polish cities to transcribe foreign same sex marriages into the country’s civil registry and the government has issued a regulation enabling registry offices to recognise such unions.
Uncertainty however remains as to what will be the legal consequences in Poland for such recognition in the civil register since Polish law does not allow same sex marriage.
Katarzyna Kotula when asked by reporters whether a same sex couple who had their marriage registered in Poland could get divorced in Poland admitted that neither she nor the government had yet considered the matter.
Another tricky issue to negotiate could be adoption rights available in Poland for married couples but not for same sex couples. While there is support for some form of legalisation of same sex civil partnerships there is little or no support for such couples to enjoy the right to adoption.
Poland’s Catholic Church and the political Right remain highly sceptical and suspicious of expanding the rights of the LGBT community.
Speaking at a press conference last week PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński said that Poland should resist moves in the direction of what he believes is “LGBT ideology”.
Kaczyński called on Poles to “ask ourselves the question: does any state have an interest in the spread of homosexuality?”
“No state has an interest in this, and Poland obviously has no interest in this either,” he answered. “It is simply a kind of anomaly, a pathology of our times, and it should be treated as such, and Poland must be resolutely defended against this pathology.”
Kaczyński added that he is “not talking about defending us from homosexuals or persecuting them”, just about ensuring “the proper conditions for raising children, that is, a family where there is a mother and a father” and promised that if PiS returns to power, it will “adopt a much clearer and tougher approach than the current law” including the criminalisation of parenting by same sex couples.
Former PiS aligned President Andrzej Duda was criticized by the liberals and the Left when during the 2020 presidential campaign he said that “LGBT is an ideology, rather than people” and PiS has actually passed resolutions in local authorities it controls against teaching about LGBT in schools.
Some of these resolutions were rescinded when the EC intervened threatening the local authorities involved with the stopping of EU funding for projects.
