Polish president vetoes civil partnerships bill

Poland's conservative President Karol Nawrocki on Friday vetoed a bill proposed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist government legalising civil partnerships, he announced in a statement.

Poland, alongside Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, is one of the last countries in Europe not to have legalised same-sex marriage or civil unions.

The bill, first sent to parliament last December, aimed to establish a "status of the closest person" available to unmarried partners, including same-sex couples.

The unions would grant some of the rights currently reserved for married couples under Polish law -- such as joint property rights, access to each other's medical information, and burial rights.

"I have always emphasised that nothing that is a quasi-marriage can count on my support," Nawrocki said on X.

"As the guardian of the Constitution, I cannot accept a solution that would lead to the loss of the special status of marriage defined... as a union of a woman and a man," added the nationalist leader.

To quell conservative backlash, leaders from the ruling coalition have emphasised that "closest person" unions need not be between romantic partners, but could also be between neighbours or family members.

The president's veto can be overridden, but it would take a three-fifths majority vote in the lower house of parliament -- a rarity in Poland.

- 'Right to happiness' -

Poland has consistently ranked among the worst in Europe for LGBTQ rights, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).

Ahead of Poland's parliamentary elections last year, Tusk's Pro-European Civic Coalition promised to introduce a bill legalising civil partnerships within their first 100 days in office.

However, the fact the party has had to rule with more conservative coalition partners and cohabitation with Nawrocki has meant many campaign promises on social issues have taken longer to compromise on and bring to a vote.

Following the president's veto, Tusk criticised it on X as "an expression of contempt toward people and their right to happiness and a normal life".

Polish conservatives, many of whom are closely aligned with the Catholic Church, have long attacked measures advocating for LGBTQ rights as "gender ideology" backed by destructive foreign powers.

But public opinion has greatly shifted on the issue in recent years.

Last year, state research agency CBOS found that 62 percent of Poles were in favour of legalising same-sex partnerships -- the highest-ever level of support for the measure.

Still, the president, who is in an uneasy cohabitation with the ruling coalition, has a reputation among his critics as a "veto machine" unwilling to reach across the aisle.

In June, Nawrocki broke the record for vetoes by any Polish president in history, despite holding office for less than a year.

- Traditionally Catholic -

In vetoing the bill, Nawrocki "has turned his back on two million people living today in informal relationships", said Katarzyna Kotula of Poland's Left (Lewica) party, who sponsored the bill.

She noted Poland has begun recognising same-sex marriages conducted in other European Union countries, following rulings from the European Court of Justice (ECJ), and later, its own Supreme Administrative Court.

"This is something that, as the Government Plenipotentiary for Equality, I intend to deliver," she said.

Polish associations estimate that between 30,000 and 40,000 Polish citizens have contracted marriages abroad.

They now anticipate a surge of couples bringing their cases to city halls in Poland following the ECJ ruling.

Traditionally Catholic Poland has yet to undertake the social and secular reforms implemented since the early 2000s in many other European countries.

In Poland, only marriage formalises the union between two people -- and exclusively people of opposite sexes -- while the country's 2021 abortion legislation is among the most restrictive in Europe.

Women can only undergo abortions in hospitals in cases of sexual assault, incest or direct threat to the life or health of the mother.

Aiding an abortion is punishable by three years in jail.

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© Agence France-Presse