Polish president vetoes bill to undermine marriage with civil partnerships

TVP reports that the legislation would allow two adults of any sex to file a cohabitation agreement, giving them several marriage-like legal benefits, such as joint tax returns and health insurance, medical information, and survivors’ rights and benefits, but not adoption.

Nawrocki says he is open to narrower reforms to address practical challenges such as the sharing of medical information and hospital visitation rights, but the bill was too far-reaching (affecting more than 200 laws), ultimately stating, “I do not agree to introducing civil partnerships through the back door, which are intended to replace or substitute the institution of marriage.”

Maintaining the sanctity of marriage is an ongoing struggle in Poland. The country limits recognition of most marriages to one man and one woman, but the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) have both ruled that Poland must recognize same-sex “marriages” that are valid in other EU nations. 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has vowed to comply with that ruling, going so far as to “apologize” to homosexual couples “who, for many, many years, felt rejected and humiliated” by lack of recognition for their unions.

In May, Nawrocki also vetoed legislation that would have permitted married couples without minor children to get divorced through a civil registry without going to court, arguing it would “diminish the status” of marriage and be “socially harmful.”

“Marriage is not simply an entry in a register,” he argued at the time. “Marriage is one of the foundations of social life. It is the foundation of the family, the foundation of raising children, the foundation of the national community. This bill is not a technical change. It diminishes the status of an institution explicitly protected by the constitution.” 

Yet marriage’s defenders face an uphill battle. In December, a CBOS survey found that 62.1 percent of Poles backed same-sex civil partnerships, including 30.6 percent who want such partnerships to have the same rights as marriages.