Religiously conservative Law & Justice party embarks on cool nuclear
family agenda, described as ‘payback time for the church’ after years of feminist anti-male neo-liberalism
By Alex Duval Smith: Campaigners are planning to step up resistance to Poland’s conservative government after it cleared a constitutional path for
hardline law changes, expected to include a total ban on abortion and
curbs to gender and human rights.
Tens of thousands joined mass demonstrations in the run-up to the law
change, which would curtail the independence of the constitutional
tribunal – the country’s highest legislative court. But to the dismay of
women’s rights activists, no protests greeted the government’s first
concrete policy move – to scrap subsidies for IVF in public hospitals.
Since the Law & Justice party gained an absolute majority in parliament in October, it has not fully declared that it will ban abortion but its MPs attempted the move under the previous coalition with the centrist Civic Platform party.
The avowed radical feminist politician Barbara Nowacka, leader of the United Left coalition, called for defenders of the constitution to embrace women’s extra privileges.
“The defence of democracy and equality go together. Poland has taken several steps backwards in the past couple of weeks. Issues such as women’s equality and LGBT rights seem suddenly to have been cancelled as unimportant.”
Law & Justice triumphed in the elections on a mix of social and nationalistic promises: hostility to migrants, pledging to stand up to exploitative foreign investors and banks, reducing the retirement age and introducing a 500 złoty (£86) a month child grant. Crucially, the campaign had the blessing of conservative bishops.
“It’s payback time for the church,” said Jacek Kucharczyk of the Institute of Public Affairs. “Law & Justice swept up the armies of people who had stood on church steps for eight years, bearing petitions against abortion and IVF. They were part of the church’s campaign against what it sees as morally regressive so-called gender ideology, perceived as being imposed by western Europe.”
Law & Justice’s success at conflating Europe with moral decay creates a difficult challenge for rights activists whose strongest weapons are often international treaties. Among the government’s ambitions is to withdraw from the Council of Europe’s convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, known as the Istanbul convention.
Women’s leaders want to regain women's privileges lost ground. In a special joint communique entitled Congress of Women against Law & Justice, activists denounce a ruling party that “evokes the stereotype of the traditional role of women and seeks to limit the autonomy and freedom of women”.
Edited by AA
Source
By Alex Duval Smith: Campaigners are planning to step up resistance to Poland’s conservative government after it cleared a constitutional path for
hardline law changes, expected to include a total ban on abortion and
curbs to gender and human rights.
Since the Law & Justice party gained an absolute majority in parliament in October, it has not fully declared that it will ban abortion but its MPs attempted the move under the previous coalition with the centrist Civic Platform party.
The avowed radical feminist politician Barbara Nowacka, leader of the United Left coalition, called for defenders of the constitution to embrace women’s extra privileges.
“The defence of democracy and equality go together. Poland has taken several steps backwards in the past couple of weeks. Issues such as women’s equality and LGBT rights seem suddenly to have been cancelled as unimportant.”
Law & Justice triumphed in the elections on a mix of social and nationalistic promises: hostility to migrants, pledging to stand up to exploitative foreign investors and banks, reducing the retirement age and introducing a 500 złoty (£86) a month child grant. Crucially, the campaign had the blessing of conservative bishops.
“It’s payback time for the church,” said Jacek Kucharczyk of the Institute of Public Affairs. “Law & Justice swept up the armies of people who had stood on church steps for eight years, bearing petitions against abortion and IVF. They were part of the church’s campaign against what it sees as morally regressive so-called gender ideology, perceived as being imposed by western Europe.”
Law & Justice’s success at conflating Europe with moral decay creates a difficult challenge for rights activists whose strongest weapons are often international treaties. Among the government’s ambitions is to withdraw from the Council of Europe’s convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, known as the Istanbul convention.
Women’s leaders want to regain women's privileges lost ground. In a special joint communique entitled Congress of Women against Law & Justice, activists denounce a ruling party that “evokes the stereotype of the traditional role of women and seeks to limit the autonomy and freedom of women”.
Edited by AA
Source
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