Yesterday, the government adopted and submitted to the Sejm a draft law on the status of the “closest person”. Although officially the draft is meant to allow parties to choose, among other things, a property regime, establish alimony obligations, access medical information, or exercise the right to use a shared residence, Katarzyna Kotula, responsible for the project, revealed a bit more. Will the draft gain the president’s approval?
Yesterday, during the last session of the year, the government adopted and submitted to the Sejm a draft law on the status of the closest person, intended to regulate the legal situation of couples in informal relationships, including same-sex couples. Officially, the draft allows parties, among other things, to choose a property regime, establish alimony obligations, access medical information, or exercise the right to use a shared residence.
Kotula let it slip
Katarzyna Kotula (New Left), Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister responsible for the draft, admitted she hopes for the president’s approval because… “the draft does not introduce a new institution, i.e., marriage, nor does it change the civil status regarding the adoption of children.”
The problem is that in a recording from the press conference, which quickly spread in public space, Kotula addressed LGBT communities with a completely different message.
“Today, the government of the October 15 coalition speaks to LGBT people, to couples in same-sex relationships. We see you. We know you exist, we want to provide you with protection and care. (…) You have chosen Poland as your homeland. You want to raise children here, have families,” the minister said.
These words hardly align with the official assurances that the law does not concern issues related to children.
What will the president decide?
Although the draft law has been presented from the start as “conciliatory” and a compromise, aimed at regulating basic, everyday matters for informal couples, the recording featuring Kotula – according to internet users – revealed the real intentions of the ruling camp. Can Kotula and the rest of Donald Tusk’s government therefore count on President Nawrocki signing this law? The head of his office commented on the matter. Paweł Szefernaker admitted on TVN24 that if the Sejm adopts the law in its current form, President Nawrocki will not sign it.
“I think that if this were a law on the status of the closest person, rather than a de facto law legalizing civil partnerships, quasi-marriages, it would have a chance [for the president’s signature],” the politician said.
When the host noted that “the law is called the law on the status of the closest person in a relationship”, Szefernaker replied that indeed “that is its name. But that does not mean it is such a law, because the solutions included in this law, as well as the purpose of introducing it indicated by the government in the regulatory impact assessment, clearly show that the aim of this solution is to introduce civil partnerships,” he explained.
The head of the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland continued: “There are provisions that make marital privileges, previously reserved only for marriages, possible to implement within these agreements.”
“The president said during the campaign that he would support solutions that help people in their daily functioning as closest persons. But there will be no agreement to introduce civil partnerships,” the politician concluded, adding that the solutions proposed by the government are “too far-reaching” – and the president will not agree to such measures.
Old ideas in a new disguise
Ordo Iuris analyst Nikodem Bernaciak points out that the draft law adopted by the government on Tuesday is not a new initiative, but “merely slightly modified drafts of the laws – ‘laws on registered civil partnerships’ – and the provisions introducing this law, which were announced over a year earlier.”
During social consultations, Ordo Iuris drew attention to the fact that the 2024 drafts are inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (RP) and “the remarks remain valid also with regard to the so-called ‘status of the closest person'”. This concerns, among other things, “granting cohabiting couples, including homosexual ones, the vast majority of attractive privileges belonging to marriages.”