Polish abortion rights activist Justyna Wydrzynska fought tears when he learned that the nationalist candidate won the presidential election in Poland on Sunday, who won an almost complete abortion ban.
With the support of the right-wing opposition, Karol Nawrocki said he would not sign a bill during the campaign to relax anti-abortion rules or introduce civil unions for LGBTQ people.
His victory dealt a severe blow to the activist who had been carrying out this change in major Catholic countries for many years.
“I really hope the results will be different,” Wydrzynska said.
She spoke at the abortion center established by an activist group across the Polish parliament: a violation designed to oppress legislators to relax strict rules.
Nawrocki's rival, the pro-EU mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski, has pledged to speed up the process by repealing what he often calls the “Medieval” law to allow legal abortion.
During the campaign, Navoloki announced that he was “supporting life protection” and said he would use the president’s veto to stop efforts to relax current rules.
Wydrzynska said the center regularly attracts anti-abortion protesters and is preparing for the new attack.
“Anti-abortion people feel braver than before,” activists told AFP.
“That means our safety is at risk… Maybe we will decide to close the place.”
– “It takes away hope” –
The results also shocked the LGBTQ community, which hopes Trzaskowski's victory paves the way for legal recognition for same-sex couples.
Tomasz Szypula, 45, said the result “delays the prospect of any positive change for the LGBTQ people for another five years” – the duration of the presidency.
He called the realization “destructive.”
“Five years later, I will be 50. I have been engaged in LGBTQ human rights activism for 20 years,” he said.
“So for a quarter of a century, there has been basically nothing changed in terms of legal progress…it took away hope, it removed the energy of action.”
In Poland, same-sex couples cannot marry or register their partnerships, and face multiple obstacles due to lack of legal recognition.
These range from the obligation to pay estate tax in case partners die from obstacles and can visit each other in the hospital.
Szypula suffered a massive stroke in 2024 and is still recovering, and he has witnessed the problem firsthand.
Szypula's mother approved the formal permission before his partner was allowed to go to the bedside.
“But this is not adult life, and when you are in your forties, mom decides whether your partner can visit you.”
– “No other way” –
Przemyslaw Walas, a campaign against homophobia activists, said he stayed up late into the night and nervously monitored the flow of election results – but said Nawrocki's victory didn't surprise him.
“We know that in every election, the LGBTQ community issue is not a priority at all,” he said.
Navoloki said in a debate in May that “marriage is clearly a relationship between men and women”, adding that he could not “imagine marriage between people of the same sex.”
“The LGBT community can't expect me to solve their problems,” he said in April.
Walas expressed concern that the far-right's election results have empowered the far-right and revived the “dark age” of rampant anti-LGBTQ hate speech.
“It's horrible, but I think it might be a signal, a spark,” Wallas said.
Szypula also said he would try to stay optimistic and said with a smile: “Being a 45-year-old queer man has an advantage, he has a stroke: you’ve seen a lot and experienced a lot.”
Earlier this year, he learned that he won the case at the European Court of Human Rights in a situation where Poland failed to legally recognize and protect same-sex couples.
“I'm so happy to see this moment,” Szypula said.
Meanwhile, “we must participate in all demonstrations” to gain equal rights.
“It’s a long way, but obviously there’s no other way.”
MMP/DT/GIV
