Polish president vetoes bill to create civil partnership rights

Poland's conservative President Karol Nawrocki vetoed a bill on Friday that would have legalised civil partnerships, including for same-sex couples, according to a statement he announced. The bill was proposed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist government and was first sent to parliament last December. It aimed to create a legal status of the "closest person" for unmarried partners, including same-sex couples. The proposed unions would have granted some rights now reserved for married couples under Polish law, including joint property rights, access to a partner's medical information and burial rights. Nawrocki said on X that he had always emphasised that anything he viewed as a quasi-marriage could not receive his support. He said that, as guardian of the constitution, he could not accept a solution that would lead to the loss of the special status of marriage, which he described as defined as a union of a woman and a man. Leaders from the ruling coalition had stressed that the proposed "closest person" unions would not have to involve romantic partners and could also apply to neighbours or family members. The president's veto can be overridden, but doing so would require a three-fifths majority in the lower house of parliament, which the source described as rare in Poland. Tusk criticised the veto on X, calling it an expression of contempt toward people and their right to happiness and a normal life. Katarzyna Kotula of Poland's Left party, who sponsored the bill, said Nawrocki had turned his back on two million people living in informal relationships. Poland, along with Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, is among the last countries in Europe not to have legalised same-sex marriage or civil unions. The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association has ranked Poland among the worst countries in Europe for LGBTQ rights. Ahead of Poland's parliamentary elections last year, Tusk's pro-European Civic Coalition promised to introduce a civil partnerships bill within its first 100 days in office. The source said governing with more conservative coalition partners and cohabitation with Nawrocki had slowed several social policy promises. Polish conservatives, many of whom are closely aligned with the Catholic Church, have long criticised LGBTQ rights measures as "gender ideology" backed by destructive foreign powers. Public opinion has shifted, however. State research agency CBOS found last year that 62 percent of Poles supported legalising same-sex partnerships, the highest level recorded for the measure. Nawrocki, who is in uneasy cohabitation with the ruling coalition, is described by critics as a "veto machine". The source said that in June he broke the record for vetoes by any Polish president, despite having been in office for less than a year. Kotula also noted that Poland had begun recognising same-sex marriages conducted in other European Union countries after rulings by the European Court of Justice and Poland's Supreme Administrative Court. She said that, as the government plenipotentiary for equality, she intended to deliver this. Polish associations estimate that between 30,000 and 40,000 Polish citizens have married abroad, and they expect more couples to bring cases to city halls in Poland following the European Court of Justice ruling. In Poland, only marriage formalises a union between two people, and only between people of opposite sexes. The source also said Poland's 2021 abortion law is among the most restrictive in Europe: women can undergo abortions in hospitals only in cases of sexual assault, incest or a direct threat to the life or health of the mother, and helping with an abortion is punishable by three years in jail.