What will the President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, decide regarding the law on the status of a “closest person”? Paweł Szefernaker, head of the presidential cabinet, announced that the president will not agree to any new legal arrangements that would create an alternative to marriage. This is not the only statement coming from the Presidential Palace.
On Friday, during a joint press conference of The Left and the Polish People’s Party (PSL) in the Sejm, the assumptions of the government’s draft bill on the status of the “closest person” and the “cohabitation agreement” were presented. The proposal, intended as an alternative to the bill on civil partnerships, would allow people in relationships to sign an agreement before a notary. This move sparked reactions across the political spectrum, including from the presidential camp.
According to the parliamentarians, the draft regulating civil partnerships is meant to be a compromise solution jointly developed by the PSL and The Left, two parties with radically different ideological backgrounds. The opposition views the project critically, and the presidential camp has also taken a stance.
In his statement, Paweł Szefernaker emphasized that President Nawrocki clearly expressed his position on this controversial issue during the election campaign. The head of the presidential cabinet noted that marriage and family remain under constitutional protection in the Republic of Poland, which forms the fundamental reference point for all discussions surrounding the proposed law.
According to Szefernaker’s remarks, the president does not intend to accept measures that could create an alternative to traditional marriage. The head of state opposes granting the “closest person” institution rights and characteristics that are, in the Polish legal system, reserved exclusively for marriage.
“The president will not agree to building an alternative to marriage through new legal solutions,”
Szefernaker stressed, signaling a potential presidential veto against overly liberal proposals.
“This Is the Abolition of Marriage”
However, Paweł Szefernaker’s statement is not the only voice from the president’s circle.
“What Kosiniak-Kamysz and Czarzasty have presented is, in fact, a law abolishing marriage, granting informal relationships the same or even greater privileges than marriage itself. I find it hard to imagine that the president would agree to something so far-reaching,”
an anonymous source from the Presidential Palace told the Interia news portal.
The source continued:
“What Karol Nawrocki spoke about throughout his campaign in the context of the law on the status of the ‘closest person’ referred to facilitating assistance between people who support one another, such as volunteers helping the elderly, or neighbors wishing to assist someone with administrative matters, not to creating a new legal institution more attractive than marriage. From the perspective of the state, such a concept makes no sense.”