More and more lawmakers from previously conservative parties are changing their views on liberalising LGBTQ rights, although Poland is still far from introducing same-sex marriages, ruling Civic Platform (PO, EPP) MP Agnieszka Pomaska said during a BBC debate in Warsaw.

The debate that took place in Warsaw’s Royal Castle on Tuesday (6 February) was an episode of the BBC World Questions series, in which the British broadcaster’s journalists visit the world’s capitals to discuss political and social matters that are relevant to a given country, with a possibility for the audience to ask questions to a country’s leading politicians.

In Warsaw, the debate concentrated mainly on the sweeping reforms by the new Donald Tusk government, including of the public media and the judiciary, that sparked great controversy in the political scene and further divided the already polarised society.

Still, one of the topics touched upon by the audience was LGBTQ rights in Poland and the perspective for the legally conservative country to introduce same-sex marriages.

“Poland is still far from it,” Pomaska said, although she insisted personally she supports the rights of same-sex couples to marry and adopt children.

Asked if her colleagues from Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform, which is a traditionally Christian Democrat party, share this view, she said that she unsure but feels that more and more are becoming more open to liberalising the law, just like with abortion.

Leftist Razem party co-leader, Senator Magdalena Biejat, agreed that the prospects of same-sex marriages in Poland are far away. “The Polish parliament is still largely conservative,” she told the debate.

On the other hand, former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki from the conservative Law and Justice (PiS, ECR) party that lost power to the Tusk-led coalition last December believes no changes in the law are now necessary.

“Under the Polish constitution, marriage is a kind of union between a man and a woman,” he said.

This was repeated by rightist Consideration party co-leader and deputy parliamentary speaker Krzysztof Bosak.

He argued that the Polish left-wing might propose amendments to the constitution, but until now, it has not done so, which, to his mind, is because most of the Polish society would not support such change anyway.

In December, Tusk announced that his government would pursue a law on civil unions, including same-sex civil unions. The draft would be submitted to the parliament and voted on as soon as this winter, he said then.

Bosak replied to Euractiv that civil unions may solve many practical issues, like access to partners’ medical information and such problems may be addressed much easier by simple changes in the law.

“Consequently, for such issues to be resolved, there is no need to create a new legal person,” he stressed.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)