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Poland is facing a decisive break from eight years of rule by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party — but civic rights groups fear that issues such as abortion and LGBTQ+ discrimination won’t be the top priority of the new government.
The October 15 election saw three opposition groupings — the centrist Civic Coalition, the center-right Third Way and the Left — win 248 seats in the 460-member parliament. Their coalition, to be headed by former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, still hasn’t taken power, as President Andrzej Duda first allowed PiS to try to win a vote of confidence in parliament.
That effort is almost certain to fail, and a Tusk-led government will take office next month.
Expectations of a radical change are high.
The incoming administration promises to undo judicial reforms that opened years of conflicts with the EU, to purge state media and state-controlled companies of PiS loyalists, to investigate and prosecute the outgoing government for wrongdoing, reset relations with the powerful Roman Catholic Church, encourage a shift to greener energy, and revamp ties with European allies like France and Germany.
The coalition also promises to improve Poland’s track record on women’s rights, penalize hate speech against LGBTQ+ people, reverse a 2020 court decision that ended most abortion rights, and focus on education and health care.
In a signal of the coming change, the first bill examined by the post-election parliament earlier this week would restore funding for in vitro procedures — blocked by the PiS government. The Left also put forward two bills to liberalize abortion laws — which were sent for analysis to see if the proposals are compatible with EU law.
But activists worry that the incoming government’s agenda is so full that their causes will get short shrift.
“We are very much aware that we need to sort out the corrupt administration, address the judiciary crisis, respond to issues with freedom of speech and of the media,” said Antonina Lewandowska, advocacy coordinator at the Polish Foundation for Women and Family Planning. “Women’s rights can easily get lost and our job in that is to make sure that they are not.”
“We will remain vigilant and keep our eyes open,” she warned, because access to safe abortion “is a matter of life and death” for women.
Mirosława Makuchowska, a campaigner with the LGBTQ+ rights association Campaign against Homophobia Poland, said there is “a spark of hope” that the Civic Coalition can put an end to years of backsliding on gender discrimination in the country.
But, she added, it is also “worrying” and somewhat “discouraging” that the more conservative members of the coalition “are saying that the government needs to focus on bigger challenges … not hustle about LGBT or abortion rights.”
“People voted for a different vision, they did not only vote the PiS out,” Makuchowska said.
Comfortable words
Tusk has already addressed some of those fears.
On the campaign trail, he said women’s rights are “the No. 1 issue” in the country, promising he would roll out gender equality policies if he comes to power, as well as simplify legal procedures for transgender people, look into introducing same-sex civil partnerships and ease abortion laws.
Although the Left and Civic Coalition back easing abortion rules and not just scrapping the 2020 court verdict, they face a problem with their remaining coalition partner Third Way — a grouping of the liberal Poland 2050 and the socially conservative Polish People’s Party.
Poland 2050’s leader Szymon Hołownia, the new speaker of parliament, said that, while he would vote against liberalizing abortion beyond repealing the 2020 verdict, his party is divided on the issue.
“If such a bill liberalizing [abortion] up to 12 weeks without restrictions is submitted to the parliament, I will most likely be a minority in my club, where everyone votes according to his or her conscience. I will vote against it,” he said.
During its previous stint in power from 2007 to 2015, Tusk’s party steered clear of most social legislation — not touching social partnerships and refusing to go to war with the Catholic Church over abortion. However, the past years of PiS rule have shifted opinions.
“When [Tusk] and his party were in power … before PiS, they didn’t do anything to liberalize abortion, they totally ignored this, and all sorts of women’s rights, LGBTQ rights,” said Agnieszka Kościańska, associate professor specialized in gender studies at the University of Warsaw, adding that “some of the biggest protests in the history of the country have been to defend abortion rights … It’s not something that the new government can ignore.”
She said the new coalition is likely to push “some liberalization” on those issues, although it will be difficult and take time.
Krzysztof Śmiszek, an MP with the Left, said in a radio interview this week that he thought there might be a chance for a majority on both civil partnerships and changing the abortion law. “I think we’ll be positively surprised,” he said.
It’s not just frictions within the coalition that could hold up social legislation. Every new law has to be signed by Duda, a socially conservative PiS loyalist. The new government doesn’t have the votes to override his presidential veto.
Call to action
But the advocates of change want action and not excuses.
Poland is the worst country in the EU when it comes to upholding and protecting LGBTQ+ people’s rights, according to an annual assessment by ILGA-Europe.
“It’s been a long wait … and there is a lot of damage to reverse,” said A. Chaber, the NGO’s executive director. “There is really clear hope and a clear message from the LGBTI movement and from the voters that these changes are a priority.”
Chaber pointed especially to a movement by local PiS-led authorities to declare their city or larger region “free of LGBT ideology.” It was part of a broader effort to galvanize right-wing voters by vilifying LGBTQ+ people used in the 2019 parliamentary election (won by PiS) and by Duda in his successful 2020 reelection campaign.
The zones were denounced across Europe and the European Commission threatened to cut off funding to any authority with such measures in place — prompting most governments to beat a retreat.
The resolutions contributed to “demonizing” LGBTQ+ people and made them feel unwelcome in parts of their own country, Chaber said.
It’s not just changing the law — activists would like the government to apologize for past discrimination.
“The state needs to say: ‘We’re sorry,’” said Makuchowska. “There’s been so much wrongdoing in the last years, there needs to be a symbolic gesture.”
