Rising Conservatism in Poland : A Worrying Precedent
Introduction
In recent years, there has been a rising conservative rhetoric in several Eastern European countries, a prime example being Poland. Poland has recently seen traditional conservative ‘values’ taking the forefront in the socio-political environment of the country as laws and legislations in relation to matters such as abortion and LGBTQ+ rights are being increasingly restricted and challenged in the interest of “protecting traditional Polish family values”. As seen in similar recent examples such as the United States, Poland’s President has utilised ‘traditional’ narratives to perpetuate a damning rhetoric in relation to these precarious subjects and garner support amongst the largely conservative and Christian swathes of the population. Subsequently in his campaigns and upon successful election, he has been permitted to take substantial action in reversing much legislative progress made in the past few decades.
What is happening?
The growing conservative environment has been reflected in recent domestic and national political acts such as the declaration of 5 of the country’s 16 provinces and more than 80 cities - largely centred in south-eastern Poland - as ‘Gay-free zones’ where members of the LGBTQ+ community are not to be welcomed or encouraged in their ‘lifestyle’. Other recent conservative developments include the removal of the right to elective abortion in the country, where now a woman may only terminate her pregnancy in three circumstances: when the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman’s life, when the pregnancy was a result of a criminal act and when the child may be born with significant health issues. This has now meant that access to abortion for women is incredibly limited and is only available on extremely specific grounds. Despite mass protests across many major Polish cities, the government – with strong ties to the powerful Catholic church in the country - has remained firm in its decision. Other areas of protection for women in Poland, such as Poland’s participation in the Istanbul Convention – which seeks to reduce and address violence against women, specifically domestic abuse – have come under threat of regression as senior government officials have and are attempting to roll back these legislations. Other areas, such as the teaching of comprehensive sex education in schools, are under threat of complete removal in curriculums, once more in the aim of ‘protecting young people’ and preserving ‘traditional’ values. The strict crackdown on these protections and subjects in the country have resulted in a worryingly large increase in the
Moreover, the current President – Andrzej Duda – in his electoral campaign placed a large focus on preserving Polish family values and signed the ‘Family Charter’, a piece of legislation which openly rejects the right to same-sex marriage, adoption rights for same-sex couples and the ability of schools to teach pupils about LGBTQ+ issues. This move, in tandem with the emergence of municipalities in Poland implementing these ‘Gay-free zones’ have created an increasingly hostile social environment for members of the LGBTQ+ community, where many members of the community in these areas report receiving increasing levels of harassment and abuse from locals.
These acts have meant that Poland now has the most restrictive LGBTQ+ laws and abortion laws in Europe, which has unsurprisingly received both domestic and international backlash. Yet this backlash lacks any substantial action being taken to respond to these reversals, where actors such as the EU - which requires member states to maintain satisfactory human rights laws in relation to both women’s rights and LGBTQ+ protections - is yet to take effective punitive action against state leaders for implementing such regressive legislations. Arguably emboldened by the increasing frequency and popularity of derogatory and dehumanising narratives used around the LGBTQ+ community or women seeking abortion; the harassment, assault and even killing of these groups have become more frequent in Poland in recent years.
Where has this come from?
However, these developments come after decades of Polish ‘synchronisation’ with European human rights laws where the country had seemingly been moving towards a more progressive and liberal mentality, yet, within a few years, decades of social progression seems to have been irrevocably destroyed. Why has this been? Well, it is easy to see that the current President’s narrative around more ‘progressive’ issues, such as LGBTQ+ rights, subscribe to conservative ideals. For example, in his first election, Adrzej Duda made LGBTQ+ rights a focus of his campaign, in stating his purpose to protect the Polish people from ‘LGBTQ+ ideology’. This idea of the LGBTQ+ community being an ideological existence has been incredibly damaging to the progress that had been made in the years prior to Duda’s election. The President, who likened being part of the LGBTQ+ community as similar to subscribing to Soviet communism, once again stimulated this idea and image of the LGBTQ+ community as a radicalised ‘other’ and a danger, which was an image that many politicians and advocates in the country had been trying to subvert for years. More recently, as President Duda was running for his second term, his opponent Rafał Trzaskowski made LGBTQ+ rights in Poland a priority in his political agenda. In response to this potential move towards a more inclusive and progressive Poland, the majority governmental party, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS), focused on perpetuating negative connotations around LGBTQ+ issues in the political sphere, in order to make it an important focus of debate in the presidential elections of 2020 and thus detract legitimacy from Mr Trzaskowski’s goals ‘for the Polish people’.
What is the impact of this elsewhere?
One of the greatest worries of these developments also lies out with Poland, in the worry around the kind of precedent this sets for other countries with already precarious socio-political atmospheres in relation to their approach to abortion or LGBTQ+ legislation. Poland’s developments have been occurring in tandem with countries such as Hungary, which has also seen a recent spike in promoting ‘traditional family values’ and restricting previously more progressive areas of legislation relating to abortion or LGBTQ+ protections. The worrying precedent these types of reversals can have is immense, as states are continually rolling back the rights and protections of previously protected communities and legislations, designed to protect marginalised peoples, such as the LGBTQ+ community and the bodily freedom of choice for women.
The striking reality that these countries have been held to very little account for these actions thus highlights a monumental and systemic flaw present in international organisations such as the EU, which has failed to implement effective measures in response to these reversals of human rights and thus, has set a potential precedent for other typically conservative EU states such as Bulgaria, Croatia and Lithuania to follow suit. The difficulty lies in the reality that Poland, as an EU member state, opted out of the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights upon joining the EU and thus, the ability of actors such as the EU to react and ‘punish’, is somewhat limited in their capacity.
Nevertheless, these moves by the Polish government to strip back ‘liberal’ protections for women and LGBTQ+ people is not altruistic as they claim but rather, lies in a deeply ingrained psyche of conservatism and Christian morality that has underpinned much of Eastern European society for decades. Without challenging and condemning these regressions and pushing for substantial protections and equality for vulnerable and marginalised people in already oppressive social structures, these narratives will only grow in power and frequency.
Image courtesy of MOs810 via Wikimedia, © 2014, some rights reserved.
