The Polish feminist group Women’s Strike have held a protest outside of the house of the president of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), Jarosław Kaczyński.
Marta Lempart, who organised the protest, said that they had chosen this date as it marked the 104th anniversary of women winning electoral rights in Poland. However, she remarked that “today we are in a similar situation”. She recalled how back in 1918 many people believed that women “didn’t have the strength or the power” to win their right to vote, and that today many viewed the women’s movement in the same way. However, she predicted that history would look back on this period of Polish politics as “a disgrace” and it will be remembered “as just a bad dream”.
In October 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland, which consisted of judges appointed by the PiS, introduced significantly stricter laws with regards to abortion, making it illegal to authorise abortions under any circumstances. This led to large protests, with the Women’s Strike group taking a lead within the opposition.
Bożena Przyłusk, another member of the Women’s Strike leadership, told Polsat News that she expected that in the future “Poland will be secular, because we are a society that is miles ahead of our representatives and politicians”. She added that in her view, much of the current political leadership “are still hostages of the Church”.
The PiS President, Kacyznski, responded to the protests by saying he did not understand why the group had chosen to target his house, since he “has always been a supporter of full equality for women”. He added that he was used to these types of protests saying that “I am a man who has been attacked for over 30 years, and I am a good target for these types of attacks from a propaganda point of view, and therefore these decisions are taken, even if they are very cynical and very ugly. The President was not at home at the time of the protest.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article, do remember to come back and check out the EuroNews247 website for all your up-to-date European news stories.
