Polish presidential frontrunner pledges to sign bills on contraception, Silesian and constitutional court

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Rafał Trzaskowski, the presidential candidate of Poland’s main ruling party, says that, if he wins the election, the first bills he would want to sign would be to allow prescription-free access to the morning-after pill, recognise Silesian as a regional language, and overhaul the constitutional court.

Those bills have been blocked by current President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party. Trzaskowski says that he also wants to sign “as soon as possible” a bill liberalising the abortion law, though the ruling coalition has not yet managed to pass one.

Trzaskowski, who is the candidate of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO), outlined his plans during an interview with Radio Opole on Friday, where he was asked which bills would be his priority upon becoming president.

“Certainly the bills that President Duda vetoed, such as the morning-after pill, the status of the Silesian language, and putting things in order in terms of what is happening at the Constitutional Tribunal (TK),” replied Trzaskowski.

In March last year, Duda vetoed a bill passed by Tusk’s coalition that would have restored over-the-counter access to emergency contraception, which was removed in 2017 under the former PiS government.

Poland is one of only two EU countries that requires a prescription for the morning-after pill. It was this year ranked as the worst country in Europe for access to contraception, a position it has held since 2019.

Two months later, Duda vetoed another bill passed by parliament that would have recognised Silesian – which is spoken by hundreds of thousands of Poles in the historical region of Silesia – as an official regional language.

The president argued that Silesian is actually a dialect, not a language, and also cited security concerns, saying that there must be “special care to preserve national identity” amid the “current social and geopolitical situation”.

Finally, after the ruling coalition passed a bill intended to overhaul the TK by undoing the politicisation of the court during PiS’s time in power, Duda effectively blocked it by referring it to the TK itself for assessment, where it remains.

Speaking to Radio Opole, Trzaskowski added that he “would very much like a bill on the liberalisation of anti-abortion regulations to be included among those [that I sign], to do it as soon as possible, because it is a woman who should decide about her life and health”.

When Tusk’s government replaced PiS in office in December 2019, it promised to end the near-total ban on abortion that was introduced in 2021 under a ruling issued by the TK the previous year.

However, since Tusk’s coalition came to power, it has failed to pass any bills liberalising the abortion law amid disputes between its more conservative and liberal elements over what form they should take.

Last August, Tusk admitted that it may be impossible to find a majority in favour of liberalising the abortion law during the current term of parliament, which is due to run until 2027.

Duda’s second and final term in office ends in August this year. On 18 May, an election will be held to choose his successor. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, a second-round run-off will be held on 1 June.

Tusk’s government is hoping for the election of a more friendly president, to avoid further vetoes blocking its legislative agenda. Trzaskowski is currently the frontrunner, averaging support of around 36.5% in polls.

He is followed by Karol Nawrocki, the candidate supported by PiS, on around 24%. Nawrocki has pledged to veto any attempts by the ruling coalition to end the near-total abortion ban or introduce same-sex civil partnerships (the latter being a policy that Trzaskowski supports).

Recent weeks have seen a rapid rise in support for Sławomir Mentzen, the candidate of the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), who now stands on around 21%. Confederation takes an even tougher conservative line than PiS on many social issues.

Rolling weekly average of support in polls for Poland’s main presidential candidates compiled by ewybory.eu

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: EPP Group in the CoR/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.