by Jonathon Van Maren, The Bridgehead
Just before the Polish presidential debate on April 11, Karol Nawrocki placed a Polish flag on his lectern. “I will represent it,” he said. Then, he walked across the stage to his liberal opponent Rafał Trzaskowski’s podium and set an LGBT flag in front of him. “I also have for Mr. Rafal Trzaskowski [The LGBT flag] because he has been running away from this symbolism,” he added, as Trzaskowski swiftly stashed the flag out of sight.
The moment went viral immediately because Nawrocki had, in a single, brilliant gesture, highlighted a primary source of power in Europe: the LGBT movement. Trzaskowski, as mayor of Warsaw, had marched at the head of the Pride parade, pushed for the use of transgender “preferred pronouns,” and, most significantly, directed staff to treat same-sex couples as if they were married. Warsaw was the first Polish city to do so.
Nawrocki’s stunt would have worked almost anywhere in Europe. Nations still clinging to their own cultures, religious heritages, and traditions face relentless campaigns from Europe’s most powerful institutions to bend the knee to the rainbow flag or face the fire. National elections mean nothing to the continental establishment. Nawrocki won the Polish presidency on June 1, and so the LGBT elites promptly employed a different strategy.
On November 25, the European Court of Justice ruled that Poland must recognize same-sex marriages conducted in other EU member states. The ruling takes direct aim at Article 18 of Poland’s constitution, which states that “Marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood, and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland.”
The case started when a homosexual Polish couple got married in Berlin and requested the transcription of their marriage certificate into Poland’s civil registry. This was denied because Polish law does not recognize same-sex marriage. The couple sued. The Civic Coalition Party government’s response came out of both sides of their mouths. Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński assured the public that the EU could not dictate Polish law and that constitutional processes would be respected.