Polish Left submits bill to introduce same-sex partnerships

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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.

Poland’s equality minister Katarzyna Kotula, who hails from The Left (Lewica), a junior partner in the ruling coalition, has submitted a bill to parliament that would introduce legally recognised partnerships for same-sex couples.

According to the minister, the proposed legislation would introduce same-sex partnerships in Poland together with tax and inheritance rights and the possibility for same-sex individuals in registered partnerships to change their surname.

The ruling coalition promised to introduce same-sex partnerships during its campaign before it won the parliamentary elections in late 2023. It then presented a government bill in October 2024, which has not yet reached parliament.

The first draft of a bill on civil partnerships – including for opposite-sex couples – was presented last year by the government. Legislation proposed in this way first needs to be consulted publicly and between ministries and requires approval from ministers before being sent to parliament.

Legislation can also be proposed by MPs, which sidesteps the consultations necessitated under the aforementioned method. The bill is presented directly in the Sejm, the lower, more powerful house of parliament, shortening the time it takes to proceed with such projects.

That is why The Left decided to present a second bill parallel to the one currently waiting for ministerial approval.

“Today, what we want most of all is for the government draft and the parliamentary draft to meet here in parliament, to be jointly processed and voted on together,” Kotula, quoted by OKO.press, said on Tuesday, before officially filing the new draft in the Sejm the following day.

“This is a law about happiness, about love, but above all it is a law about security,” said Kotula. The proposed legislation would introduce same-sex partnerships as well as “the possibility to change the surname, the right of inheritance, joint tax settlement”.

To become law, the bill first requires the approval of parliament, where the ruling coalition is split on the issue. If approved, it would move to the desk of the president, who can sign it into law, veto it, or send it to the constitutional court for assessment.

The previously presented government bill faced opposition from the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL), the most conservative element of the ruling coalition.

“I fought for months to get the government bill on the list [of official draft legislation]. The bill got stuck…It is time to say [to the rest of the coalition]: show your hand,” Kotula explained, quoted by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

At the same time, she highlighted that the bill proposed by her and 20 other MPs from The Left does not mean the end of the government’s one. She explained that the other legislation is awaiting “the green light” from Prime Minister Donald Tusk. If approved by ministers, it would be sent to the Sejm.

The introduction of civil partnerships is supported by the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), the main ruling group, as well as The Left. Kotula claims that another coalition partner, the centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050), is also supportive.

Meanwhile, the right-wing opposition – made up of the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party and the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) – is opposed to same-sex civil partnerships.

In 2020, while campaigning for re-election, incumbent President Duda, a PiS ally, hinted that he would be willing to sign into law a bill on same-sex partnerships. However, last year his chief of staff announced that “the president does not support civil partnerships”.

Meanwhile, President-elect Karol Nawrocki, who is also aligned with the right-wing opposition, in a recent interview for newspaper Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, said that he is “ready to discuss a law on the status of the closest person” that would allow “close persons” to, for example, benefit from inheritance rights, joint settlement of taxes, mutual access to information and medical visitation rights.

“The government bill may become a government act on the status of a close person. I am open to this and ready for it,” Kotula told Wirtualna Polska, pledging her readiness to discuss the matter with Nawrocki.

She also added that if neither of the bills succeeds, then she will resort to “non-statutory solutions at the level of regulations, guidelines, and government memos”.

Poland is currently one of only five EU member states that does not recognise same-sex partnerships, and the European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that this violates the rights of same-sex couples.

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: Miłość Nie Wyklucza/Flickr (under CC BY-ND 2.0)

Agata Pyka

Agata Pyka is an Assistant Editor at Notes from Poland. She specialises in Central and Eastern European affairs, cybersecurity, and investigative reporting. She holds a master’s degree in political communication from the University of Amsterdam, and her work has appeared in Euractiv, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), and The European Correspondent, among others.