Surrounded by fields of roses and lavender in tranquil eastern Poland, some residents of the village of Konskowola feel the EU might be trying to blackmail them.
Like about 100 other municipalities across rural Poland, the local council has declared Konskowola to be free of “LGBT ideology,” reflecting a backlash against gay rights throughout the conservative, largely Catholic nation.
This has raised eyebrows in Brussels, with the European Commission signaling to regional authorities, including Konskowola, that it might curb EU aid to areas that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
Some residents, such as Konskowola Council head Radoslaw Gabriel Barzenc, are angry over what they see as unjustified interference by Europe’s liberal west in the town’s beliefs.
“The restrictions could be implemented because people have an opinion. Isn’t this discrimination? Is this what European tolerance is about? I don’t think so. I cannot imagine we would yield to blackmail,” Barzenc said.
Gay rights have become a hot-button issue in Poland since the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power five years ago, pledging to defend traditional family values.
In the run-up to last Sunday’s presidential run-off election, Polish President Andrzej Duda, allied with PiS, pledged to ensure gay couples would not be able to adopt children and to prevent education about gay rights in public schools.
He won a second five-year term with 51 percent of the votes against a liberal challenger, amid mounting polarization in Poland over the role religious values should play in public life.
PiS and Duda have long disagreed with Europe over Warsaw’s adherence to democratic norms, and the issue was on the agenda at an EU summit which started in Brussels on Friday.
Some want to freeze payouts for EU countries said to be undermining democratic values, such as Poland, although Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a right-wing ally of Warsaw’s conservative government, has threatened a veto.
On the eve of the summit, Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who is gay, expressed outrage.
“If we accept that you condemn a sexual minority, tomorrow it will be religion, the day after it will be race,” he said.
A Polish rights organization has also petitioned the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) to investigate whether EU funds disbursed in Poland are being misused by “LGBT-free” communities.
OLAF declined to comment.
In Konskowola, in Poland’s conservative heartland, about 70 percent of residents voted for Duda, a devout Catholic.
“The EU should not withdraw its funds,” said Urszula Nowak, a 76-year-old pensioner who has lived her entire life in the village.
“It would mean the EU was against our faith. The majority of Poles are Christian after all,” Nowak said.
Konskowola authorities say their aim is not to discriminate against any individuals.
In a declaration last year, the council said it opposed any public activity aimed at “promoting the ideology of the LGBT movement,” and declared it would protect its school and its families from anything that would contradict Christian values.
“We will not allow any administrative pressure in support of political correctness, rightfully called ‘homopropaganda,’” the declaration read.
However, dissent in Konskowola, which has a population of just over 2,000, is brewing.
Konskowola Mayor Stanislaw Golebiowski, who is not a member of the local council, says it should have never taken up the issue and should reconsider. He feels too much is at stake.
He wants EU cash to modernize irrigation systems — made more urgent by falling groundwater levels — for the town’s prized rose fields and other flowers it grows.
Like thousands of towns and villages across Poland, which joined the EU in 2004 and has since received about 36 billion euros (US$41 billion) in aid, Konskowola has spent the cash on projects to improve living standards after the ravages of World War II and four decades of communism.
Honorata Sadurska, 26, a bisexual veterinarian from Konskowola, believes homophobia is on the rise.
“It’s happened that I was pushed on the bus or that someone has yelled something not nice to me. Is it because of the council’s declaration,” she said. “I don’t know what came first, the chicken or the egg.”
However, she opposes funding cuts for Konskowola.
“It will only isolate such places further,” Sadurska said.
Additional reporting by Aleksandra Smigiel, Joanna Plucinska and John Chalmers
There has been much catastrophizing in Taiwan recently about America becoming more unreliable as a bulwark against Chinese pressure. Some of this has been sparked by debates in Washington about whether the United States should defend Taiwan in event of conflict. There also were understandable anxieties about whether President Trump would sacrifice Taiwan’s interests for a trade deal when he sat down with President Xi (習近平) in late October. On top of that, Taiwan’s opposition political leaders have sought to score political points by attacking the Lai (賴清德) administration for mishandling relations with the United States. Part of this budding anxiety
The diplomatic dispute between China and Japan over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments in the Japanese Diet continues to escalate. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong (傅聰) wrote that, “if Japan dares to attempt an armed intervention in the cross-Strait situation, it would be an act of aggression.” There was no indication that Fu was aware of the irony implicit in the complaint. Until this point, Beijing had limited its remonstrations to diplomatic summonses and weaponization of economic levers, such as banning Japanese seafood imports, discouraging Chinese from traveling to Japan or issuing
On Nov. 8, newly elected Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) and Vice Chairman Chi Lin-len (季麟連) attended a memorial for White Terror era victims, during which convicted Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spies such as Wu Shi (吳石) were also honored. Cheng’s participation in the ceremony, which she said was part of her efforts to promote cross-strait reconciliation, has trapped herself and her party into the KMT’s dark past, and risks putting the party back on its old disastrous road. Wu, a lieutenant general who was the Ministry of National Defense’s deputy chief of the general staff, was recruited
Tokyo-Beijing relations have been rapidly deteriorating over the past two weeks as China tries to punish Japan over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks about Taiwan earlier this month, and the off-ramp to this conflict is yet to be seen. Takaichi saying that a “Taiwan contingency” could cause a “situation threatening Japan’s survival” — which would allow Japan to act in self-defense — has drawn Beijing’s ire and sparked retaliatory measures. Her remark did not gain public attention until Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian (薛劍) made an apparent threat to behead her. The two sides lodged protests against each
RSS