Poland: Duda and PiS wage anti-LGBT campaign

Polish president Duda has presented a family charter in the run-up to the presidential elections in late June. Among other things his goal is to defend marriage as a bond between men and women and to protect children "from the LGBT ideology". Observers believe this will be the dominant topic in the campaign of the national conservative ruling PiS party. With what implications?

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Gazeta Wyborcza (PL) /

The only hope

Duda is clutching at straws, writes Gazeta Wyborcza:

“The president's staff is thinking along these lines: PiS voters, who are almost 100 percent loyal to Duda, are very conservative and very pro-Church. And very determined. They will go out and vote even if it's their last day on earth. The PiS plans to keep this mobilisation going until the second round of the election, in the hopes that opposition voters will waver, lack resolve and perhaps go off on holiday on July 12 and forget to exercise their right to vote. That is Andrzej Duda's only hope.”

Krytyka Polityczna (PL) /

Hypocritical silence of the opposition

The opposition's silence on the subject speaks volumes, laments Krytyka Polityczna:

“Opposition candidate Rafał Trzaskowski has still not commented on LGBT. He's avoiding the subject like the plague. And things will likely stay that way until after the campaign. Is there a rational, political explanation for this? Perhaps. But must we still condemn this on a human level? Absolutely. ... Demanding silence and submission from a minority amounts to eternal blackmail. It is immoral and hypocritical, because it is based on sweeping permanent and systematic humiliation, lack of action and the deprivation of civil rights of hundreds of thousands of people under the carpet.”