“The President, when running for office, said there would be no consent to such solutions. There will be no consent from the President to introducing quasi-marriages into Polish law,” said Paweł Szefernaker, Head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, during today’s press conference.
The issuance of a regulation on the transcription of foreign same-sex marriage certificates was recently announced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. At the time, he said that the regulations would first take the form of a regulation and later a law.
On Friday, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski and Minister of the Interior and Administration Marcin Kierwiński signed a regulation enabling the entry of foreign marriage certificates concluded by same-sex couples into Polish civil registry records without the need to obtain a prior court ruling. The new provisions are to come into force in three months.
According to the government, this regulation is a consequence of a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union from November last year. The CJEU obliged Poland to recognize same-sex marriages concluded in other EU countries. The ruling was subsequently upheld by Polish administrative courts, which ordered its implementation.
Krzysztof Gawkowski emphasized in a conversation with journalists that the signed regulation will be binding for all civil registry offices in Poland. He also added that he expects officials to comply with the new provisions. The example of Zakopane, where the mayor clearly opposed this action, demonstrates that part of society disagrees on this issue.
President will not agree to a law on same-sex marriages
President Karol Nawrocki has repeatedly stressed that he will not consent to equating the institution of marriage, as regulated in the Polish Constitution, with so-called same-sex marriages. Today, his associates confirmed his position during a press conference.
Paweł Szefernaker, Head of the Chancellery of the President, said: “There is a bill being processed in parliament that de facto introduces civil partnerships in Poland. These are exactly two bills. Yesterday, an extraordinary committee adopted both bills. Today there will be a second reading. A vote in the third reading in the Sejm on these two bills is planned for later this week. Both bills effectively introduce civil partnerships into Polish law. On behalf of the President, I would like to point out what he has said from the very beginning. There is no and will be no consent from the President to introduce or legalize civil partnerships.”
“These bills currently being processed effectively introduce the institution of civil partnership. One bill defines this agreement, while the other introduces the institution of civil partnership and partner into the entire legal system of the Republic of Poland. This is a law that effectively changes over 200 other laws – meaning it changes the entire legal system in Poland, adapting it to equate marriage and spouse with civil partnership and partner,” Szefernaker explained.
As the presidential minister noted – “in this law, which changes over 200 laws in Poland, wherever marriage is mentioned, wherever a spouse is mentioned, civil partnership and partner are added. Thus, these two institutions are equated. This law introduces a number of solutions identical for civil partnerships to those currently dedicated only to marriages, such as the possibility of joint tax filing.”
He added – “we also have a certain context of these actions – the current parliamentary coalition, those who hold a majority in parliament, the government. We also have the context of an attempt to forcibly introduce an unconstitutional transcription of civil partnerships, which abroad are referred to as same-sex marriages, into Polish law and the Polish system. We know that today, under Polish law, under the Constitution and the Civil Status Records Act, it is not possible to legally carry out such transcriptions, but in the context of these two bills currently being processed in parliament, this effectively creates the possibility for these privileges, which are currently privileges for marriages under Polish law, to be extended to same-sex relationships. The President also does not consent to this.”
“As the President said during the election campaign and throughout his nine months in office, the first step is the introduction of civil partnerships, the second step is the transcription of what abroad is same-sex marriage, and then it leads to further steps – this policy of small steps leads to adoption rights. The President, when running for office, said there would be no consent to such solutions. There will be no consent from the President to introducing quasi-marriages into Polish law,” Paweł Szefernaker recalled.
The Head of the Chancellery of the President, Paweł Szefernaker, emphasized that President Karol Nawrocki supports solutions aimed at facilitating everyday functioning for Poles, including through the introduction of the status of a “close person.”
As he noted, such provisions could regulate formal matters between people in a shared relationship or running a joint household. At the same time, Szefernaker assured that the President will not support projects concerning the legalization of civil partnerships. According to him, the proposals currently being processed in parliament effectively lead to their introduction, which – as he stressed – will not receive the consent of the head of state.