Poland Says No to EU on Gay

By | 2026

Karol Nawrocki, Polish President

UNITED NATIONS, August 7 (C-Fam) Polish President Karol Nawrocki and the Polish Constitutional Court blocked efforts of the European Union to impose homosexual marriage and civil unions on the central European power.

In mid-July, President Nawrocki vetoed legislation that would have given homosexuals civil union status with similar rights and privileges as marriage. This week, the Constitutional Court unanimously struck down reforms by the pro-EU government to recognize homosexual marriages contracted elsewhere in Europe.

The President and the Court justified their actions by citing the Polish Constitution, which protects marriage between a man and a woman. Their acts defy intense pressure from EU officials and direct orders of the EU court to bring Polish law in line with progressive EU policies.

Universal recognition of homosexual marriage across all EU nations is at the center of the EU Commission’s “Equality Strategy.” Family advocates point out that such policies are illegal because the EU Constitution recognizes that marriage and family law are issues that are exclusively the competence of domestic laws.

The EU Court of Justice handed the Commission a powerful lever to achieve its objective of universal homosexual marriage last year. It ruled that Poland and other EU nations that do not allow homosexual couples to contract a marriage must nonetheless recognize homosexual marriages from other EU nations. The Polish President and Constitutional Court disregarded this ruling and the pressure from the EU Commission to uphold the Polish Constitution.

Nawrocki explained in a statement on X that “I have always emphasized that nothing that is a quasi-marriage can count on my support. As the guardian of the Constitution, I cannot accept a solution that would lead to the loss of the special status of marriage defined in Article 18 of the Constitution as a union of a man and a woman under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland as a union of a woman and a man.”

The bill Nawrocki vetoed established a “closest person” legal category to grant homosexual couples and other individuals who are not married, but otherwise close, the same rights and privileges as married couples. In order to overcome the veto, the pro-EU governing party of Donald Tusk must obtain a supermajority of 3/5 of the Polish Parliament, an amount of votes that the current Polish government cannot count on.

The Constitutional Court struck down a reform of Warsaw’s registry for marriages which replaced the separate categories of “man” and “woman” and replaced them with the gender neutral template “man/woman.” The Law and Justice (PiS) party brought the constitutional challenge against the reforms to the highest court in Poland and prevailed in a unanimous ruling. That decision is final and cannot be appealed because the Constitutional Court is the final authority on the Polish constitution.

Homosexual activists reacted angrily, as reported in the LGBT site Washington Blade. “We will not allow years of work by non-governmental organizations, activists, and our entire community to be wasted,” said Miko Czerwiński of the Polish group Campaign Against Homophobia, a group funded by the EU and progressive European governments.

The standoff between pro-EU forces and the Constitutional Court sets up a constitutional crisis over marriage. Some Polish activists and pro-EU politicians are beginning to argue that the EU Court of Justice is a higher legal authority than the Polish Constitutional Court. Seemingly along these lines, the current Polish government announced that it will continue to register homosexual marriages contracted in other EU nations regardless of the Constitutional Court’s ruling.

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