PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński said that the regulation signed by ministers Krzysztof Gawkowski and Marcin Kierwiński concerning the transcription of foreign same-sex marriage certificates is “completely contrary to the constitution.” The opposition leader spoke of an attempt to introduce a “very deep cultural change” in Poland and announced stricter regulations should his party return to power.
On Friday, Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, together with Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński, signed a regulation allowing Polish registry offices to transcribe foreign marriage certificates of same-sex couples without a court ruling. The regulation will enter into force in three months.
The regulation follows a ruling issued in November last year by the Court of Justice of the European Union. At that time, the court obliged Poland to recognize same-sex marriages concluded in other EU member states. The ruling was later upheld and ordered to be enforced by Polish administrative courts.
Speaking to journalists on Friday, Minister Gawkowski stressed that the newly signed regulation on the transcription of foreign same-sex marriage certificates applies to all registry offices. He expressed hope that every official in Poland would respect the law.
During Saturday’s press conference at the headquarters of Law and Justice, Kaczyński was asked about Friday’s regulation and about the announcement by Zakopane mayor Łukasz Filipowicz that the Zakopane registry office would refuse to transcribe foreign same-sex marriage certificates.
“Every representative of local government authority who refuses to carry out this type of decision is right,” the PiS chairman said.
Kaczyński assessed that Friday’s regulation “in itself is completely contrary to the constitution.”
“Let me remind you, a regulation must be an executive act whose framework and legitimacy are rooted in a statute. Here they are using certain tricks concerning the construction of documents and the way certain documents are written, but that does not mean that, through this kind of act, one can strike at a completely clear constitutional provision,” Kaczyński said.
During Saturday’s press conference, Kaczyński stressed that Poland is dealing with a “very serious matter.”
“There is an attempt to introduce a very deep cultural change in Poland,” the PiS leader said. He argued that the change “puts in first place the interests of a certain minority group demanding that its distinctiveness not be taken into account at all, and that children should pay the price for it.”
“This is about the interests of children,” Kaczyński stressed.
In this context, the PiS leader stated that “children should have a mother and a father.” He noted that, due to life circumstances, situations may arise in which a child is raised by only one parent.
“However, under no circumstances can we engage in what could be described as experiments on children,” Kaczyński stressed.
“I would criminalize it altogether — meaning I would introduce a criminal provision that punishes such undertakings, and punishes them severely,” he added.
“One must remember that marriage is a union between a woman and a man. A proper family, proper conditions for raising children, is a family where there is a mother and where there is a father,” the PiS chairman said.
“And, in short, this is the position that will be adopted in a much clearer and tougher form than the current law if we return to power,” Kaczyński declared.