Poland's plans to legalise civil unions face scrutiny from president
The decades-long struggle for legal civil partnerships in Poland may continue after President Karol Nawrocki's chief of staff said the president will not agree to any solutions that would "create an alternative to marriage."
"The president will not agree to new solutions that would create an alternative to marriage by giving the institution of the closest person characteristics that in Poland are exclusively attributed to marriage," Pawel Szefernaker wrote on X on Sunday.
"This must be taken into account by the authors and promoters of the draft," he added.
Szefernaker was referring to a bill on the closest person, presented on Friday, through which the centrist government would like to deflect Nawrocki's potential veto to a civil partnerships bill.
The right-wing Nawrocki, an ally of the socially-conservative opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) who claims to be an independent president, selected a number of PiS politicians as his aides after he was sworn in as Poland's head of state in August.
When in power in 2015-2023, PiS strongly opposed any ideas leading to legalising civil unions in Poland despite the fact that nearly a million Poles live in non-marriage relationships.
Promoting a Catholic viewpoint, PiS was also against offering more rights to sexual minorities.
The latest government bill regulates the issues of property in an informal union, the right to home and alimony, and access to the partner's medical documentation.
But even this watered-down version of legislation may meet with Nawrocki's opposition and ultimately his veto.
All bills in Poland must be signed by the president to become law. The parliament may reject the president’s veto by a three-fifths majority, which the ruling coalition does not have. (PAP)
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