Poles are becoming more socially liberal and opposed to the privileged status the Catholic church enjoys in relations with the state, according to the latest findings from long-term polling by CBOS, a state research agency.
Support for legal access to abortion has reached 41% – a rise of 12 percentage points since 2019 and the highest figure since 1999. By contrast, 29% favour the legal prohibition of abortion, down 10 percentage points since two years ago, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Meanwhile, support for the legalisation of same-sex partnerships – which are currently not permitted in Poland – now stands at 36%, up six percentage points since 2019 and ten since 2015. Surveys by other pollsters have in recent years found a growing majority now in favour of same-sex partnerships.
CBOS suggests that these shifts may be a reaction against the current national-conservative government, which supported the recent introduction of a near-total ban on abortion and has pursued a long-running anti-LGBT campaign.
“It seems that the changes…[to] a more liberal approach…in recent years are to some extent a reaction to the policies of the ruling camp,” wrote CBOS, quoted by PAP. “The ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal [to outlaw almost all abortions]…contributed to the liberalisation of opinions on abortion.”
The same CBOS report also shows that the proportion of Poles who say the concordat agreement between the Vatican and Poland is unnecessary, and that the state should not favour any Christian denomination, rose from 40% in 2019 to 49% today.
A variety of other polling has shown declining opinion of the church among Poles, amid scandals over clerical sex abuse and anger at abortion restrictions, which are opposed by most Poles but supported by the Catholic episcopate.
The Catholic church has seen a greater decline in trust over recent years than any other major institution in Poland. This effect has been particularly strong among the young, just 9% of whom hold a positive view of the church, according to a recent poll.
Earlier this year, CBOS found that more young Poles now hold left-wing views than ever previously recorded, and that for the first time they outnumber those with both centrist and right-wing views.
Main image credit: Jakub Orzechowski / Agencja Gazeta
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.
