In a blow to LGBT+ rights activists in Poland, Andrzej Duda from the far-right wing Law and Justice Party has won the presidential election. However, he only won the election with a tiny majority, with only 51.2 per cent of the votes.
Duda ran an electoral campaign which heavily vilified the LGBT+ community, calling it a “destructive” force.
The tiny majority is the tightest win Poland has ever had. Rafal Trzaskowski, the current major of Warsaw, who runs on a liberal platform narrowly lost with 48.8 per cent of the vote.
During Duda’s campaign, he signed one of the most anti-LGBT charters in the EU against what he calls the “LGBT Ideology”, which he said was “more destructive than communist indoctrination”.
The charter defends the “institution of marriage” which means that there is no acceptance of gay marriage.
He’ll also refuses to accept allowing gay couples to adopt children.
Poland has the worst LGBT+ rights for any EU country
Poland’s lags way behind its fellow EU countries when it comes to LGBT+ rights according to Rainbow-Europe.org. It has just a 15.8 per cent approval rating, compared to Malta which sits at the top with nearly 90 per cent approval. Neighbouring countries to Poland, Lituania, Belarus, Slovakia and the Czech Republic all fall well below 50 per cent on the scale.