Poland’s new Europhile government may be poised to fast-track the legalisation of same-sex marriage following a legal diktat from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The Strasbourg-based ECHR issued their verdict on Tuesday, declaring that current Polish statutes, which recognize marriage as between a man and a woman, violate the “right to respect for private and family life” outlined under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in a six-to-one decision.
The ECHR, which is often accused of being a technocratic body used to impose socially liberal values on European nation-states, made the decision in response to a challenge by five same-sex couples.
While the ruling stressed that it could not force any nation state to legislate for or against same-sex partnerships, it did minimise the Polish state’s “traditional concept of marriage as a union of a man and a woman” that was given as one of the reasons not to recognise homosexual unions by the departing PiS government.
This is not the first time the ECHR has been accused of meddling in the affairs of sovereign nations around LGBT issues. In 2010, the Court was instrumental in strongarming the Italian government into recognising same sex partnerships with the similarly worded Oliari v. Italy case.
Despite a reputation as being a conservative stronghold, Poland has long been at the vortex of culture wars around issues such as abortion and LGBT issues. It faces an ongoing assault from progressive NGOs, something which in turn has been a key rallying point for the conservative PiS.
Progressive forces scored a major victory in October as PiS lost their majority to govern in the Polish Parliament in favour of a grand coalition led by former European Council President Donald Tusk
The ruling on same-sex partnerships heralded by this week’s ECHR decision could be the opening salvo in a range of liberal policies to be enacted under the new Tusk government. The newly installed PM has said LGBT recognition would be a major symbolic victory over the old PiS regime despite Tusk having minimised abortion and other social issues during the campaign trail.
In a sign of things to come, one of Tusk’s first cabinet appointments was the left-wing radical Katarzyna Kotula as equality minister.
The ECHR expected to issue a similar liberal-worded verdict later this week, this time challenging Warsaw’s abortion laws.
In addition to various liberal policies the Tusk administration has already commenced plans for an aggressive institutional purge against conservative elements within civil society as many fear that the country could go the way of formerly conservative nations such as Ireland in the coming years.
