Pallade Veneta - Nationalist's win dashes hopes for Polish LGBTQ, abortion rights

Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing opposition, said during the campaign he would not sign into law bills to relax anti-abortion rules or introduce civil unions for LGBTQ people.

For activists who have been campaigning for years to secure such changes in the predominantly Catholic country, his victory has dealt a severe blow.

"I really expected that the result would be different," said Wydrzynska, adding that she felt anger, sadness and disappointment -- "a mixture of those three emotions."

She spoke in the abortion centre set up by her activist group just opposite the Polish parliament: an act of defiance intended to pressure lawmakers into easing the stringent rules.

Nawrocki's rival, pro-EU mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski, had pledged to accelerate the process, allow legal abortion by repealing the law that he frequently called "medieval".

During the campaign, Nawrocki declared himself "in favour of protecting life" and said he would use the president's veto power to block efforts to relax the current rules.

Wydrzynska said the centre, which regularly draws anti-abortion protesters, is bracing for new attacks.

"The anti-abortion people can feel much braver than they've been before," the activist, who was herself sentenced in an unprecedented ruling for aiding an abortion, told AFP.

"It means that our safety is in danger... Maybe we will decide to close this place."

- 'It takes away hope' -

The result also shook the LGBTQ community which had hoped that a Trzaskowski win would pave the way for the legal recognition of same-sex couples.

Tomasz Szypula, 45, a campaigner, said the outcome "pushes back the prospect of any positive change for LGBTQ people for another five years" -- the duration of presidential terms.

He called the realisation "devastating".

"In five years I'll be 50. I've been involved in LGBTQ human rights activism for 20 years," he recounted.

"So for a quarter of a century, basically nothing has changed for me in terms of legal progress... it takes away hope, it takes away the energy to act."

In Poland, same-sex couples cannot marry or register their partnerships and, due to the lack of legal recognition, face multiple hurdles.

These range from the obligation to pay inheritance tax in case a partner dies to obstacles to visiting each other at the hospital.

Szypula, who in 2024 suffered a massive stroke and is still in recovery, witnessed the problem first-hand.

His partner was only allowed to his bedside after a formal permission was granted by Szypula's mother.

"But that's not what adult life is about, when you're in your forties and your mum decides whether your partner can visit you or not," he said.

- 'No other way' -

Przemyslaw Walas, a Campaign Against Homophobia activist, said he stayed up late into the night, nervously monitoring the election results trickling in -- but said Nawrocki's win did not take him by surprise.

"We know that LGBTQ community issues are not priority issues at all, in every election," he said.

Nawrocki said in a debate in May that "a marriage is obviously a relationship between a man and a woman" and added he could not "imagine a marriage between people of the same sex".

In April, he said that "the LGBT community cannot count on me to address their issues".

Walas voiced fear of the far-right being empowered by the election results and of reliving "the dark times" of rampant anti-LGBTQ hate speech all over again.

"It's quite terrifying but also I think it could be a signal, a spark, to mobilise again," Walas said.

Szypula also said he would try to stay upbeat, adding with a chuckle: "There's one advantage to being a 45-year-old queer man who's had a stroke: you've seen a lot and been through a lot."

Earlier this year, he learned that he won a case at the European Courts of Human Rights over Poland's failure to legally recognise and protect same-sex couples.

"I was just glad that I lived to see this moment," Szypula said, adding he had no illusion that anything would change under Nawrocki.

In the meantime, "we'll have to attend all the demonstrations" for equal rights.

"It's a long road, but apparently there is no other way."

O.Pileggi--PV