If you believe in God, you don’t vote for ruling party, says Polish opposition leader Tusk

Opposition leader Donald Tusk has declared that true believers in God, such as himself, do not vote for the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which enjoys close relations with Poland’s influential Catholic church.

At a convention of his Civic Platform (PO) party yesterday, Tusk and other leaders criticised the government’s hardline policies on issues such as abortion and sex education – which are also backed by the church – and pledged to introduce a more liberal agenda once in power.

They have faced criticism from conservative commentators, who accuse the party of paying lip service to the country’s dominant Catholic faith while advocating policies that stand in opposition to church teaching.

“[If] you believe in God, you do not vote for PiS – it is as simple as that,” declared Tusk, earning applause from the almost 6,000 supporters gathered in at an arena in Radom, a city of 200,000 in east-central Poland. “I say this as a Christian,” he emphasised.

“If you have a daughter [or] a granddaughter like me, then for the love of God you cannot vote for PiS,” said the PO leader. “They have created a hell for women, and they will create a hell for our daughters and granddaughters.”

“Women’s hell” is a historical term recently used by those protesting against the near-total ban on abortion introduced in Poland at the start of last year, who also point to other restrictions introduced or proposed by PiS on issues such as contraception and sex education.

Tusk urged fathers and grandparents to talk with their daughters and grandchildren to better understand their perspective. He also asked them how, as Christians, “can you vote for the lies, theft, contempt and hatred [of PiS]”?

Since returning to lead PO exactly one year ago, Tusk has often invoked religion as a way of attacking the ruling party. At his first major press conference, he accused PiS and its allies in the Catholic hierarchy of “destroying the church” by turning it into a “political tool”.

In May this year, he pledged to “immediately carry out the process of separating the church from the state” after coming to power, saying that “a significant part of the clergy” is now “composed of government functionaries”.

After Tusk’s opening address at the PO conference yesterday, other speakers outlined the party’s so-called “Package for Women”, including free contraception, prenatal examinations and IVF treatment; undoing PiS’s decision to make morning-after pills available only on prescription; and sex education in schools.

The programme also includes introducing abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy at the request of a woman in consultation with her doctor and a psychologist. That would not only undo the current near-total ban, but also create an abortion law more liberal than the one that existed up to 2020.

“We stand in defence of every Polish woman – those from big cities, from small towns, and from small communes,” said PO MP Aleksandra Gajewska.

A number of speakers also accused PiS and central bank chief Adam Glapiński of mismanaging the economy, thereby helping stoke Poland’s highest inflation in 25 years. When “PiS ends, price rises will end”, declared Tusk, saying that fighting inflation requires “competence and honesty”.

PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, however, immediately hit back, saying that when in power “Tusk [was] the prime minister of Polish poverty”. A return of “Tusk means poverty”, he added, quoted by Polskie Radio.

Morawiecki pointed to the government’s efforts to support Poles financially, including expanded pensions, lower income tax, and infrastructure spending. By contrast, PO offers “no specifics, no programme and at the same time empty promises that we know will be broken”.

Conservative commentators also criticised Tusk’s speech. Samuel Pereira, the head of state TV’s news website, said that Tusk was hypocritically claiming to be a Christian while calling for “the killing of children” through abortion. “He will do and say anything to take power,” tweeted Pereira.

In a column for wPolityce, a website that is part of a media group linked to PiS, Michał Karnowski criticised Tusk for failing to mention Russia or Ukraine in his speech, and in particular the fact that the war and the Kremlin’s other actions have driven inflation.

“There are two possibilities: Tusk’s speech was written for him in either Moscow or Berlin,” wrote Karnowski. “A Polish politician would not be able to deliver such a hideous and harmful speech on his own.”

Main image credit: Marcin Kucewicz / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

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.