Page 11 - bne_newspaper_June_29_2018

Central Europe
June 29, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
However, the current right-wing Law and Justice government considered these efforts insufficient. The party says Poland is regularly besmirched by accusations of its complicity in the Holocaust.
By removing the section that criminalises the complicity claims, Poland will now step up efforts against “defamation,” the Law and Justice chair- man and informal top decision maker Jaroslaw Kaczynski told Gazeta Polska.
Polish and Israeli prime ministers also issued a joint statement on the day the amendment was passed, asserting that “contacts between our countries and societies have been based on a well- grounded trust and understanding.”
“We support free and open historical expression and research on all aspects of the Holocaust so that it can be conducted without any fear of legal obstacles,” the statement also said.
Czech government supports same-sex marriages bill
bne IntelliNews
The Czech government has become the first in
the former socialist bloc to support a bill allowing same-sex marriages. The bill is the next step from the 2006 law allowing gay and lesbian couples to enter into registered partnerships.
Homosexual couples will obtain the same rights regarding inheritance, maintenance obligation and family issues as married couples.
In total 46 lawmakers from different parties drafted the marriage bill, arguing that homosexual couples deserved the option of full marital status. The MPs were from six parties including governing populist Ano, liberal-protest Pirates, the Social Democrats, right-wing, liberal and pro-European TOP 09, centrists STAN and, surprisingly, the Communists.
The right-wing, conservative Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and the Neo-Nazi Freedom and Direct Democracy were not included.
A different group 37 lawmakers from across the floor are calling for a definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman to be enshrined in the constitution.
The main opposition is coming from the conservative KDU-CSL. “I rather hold the view that marriage is some kind of basic value, which shouldn’t succumb to volatility,” said Marek
Vyborny (KDU-CSL) in comments cited by iDNES.cz
The bill allowing same-sex marriages needs only a simple majority in the 200-seat house to pass, while a constitutional change requires 120 votes.
The only post-communist region to have adopted same-sex marriage legislation is former East Germany, which was subsumed into West Germany and inherited its laws.
Czechia has the advantage that religion has been side-lined, so opposition to the legislation is not strong. According to a poll conducted by Median agency, 75% of respondents agree with a statement that if two people love each other, they should be able to marry regardless of sexual orientation.
The LGBTQ community is tolerated but is not fully accepted by society. The legacy of communism is significant and the position of LGBTQ+ people in society is behind the norms of Western Europe.
In a recent poll, 35% of respondents agreed that ‘homosexuality is not natural’ and 32% agreed that ‘homosexuality is the question of fashion’.
But Czechia is still the most liberal of the CEE countries. A poll by Pew Research found in June 2017 that 21% of Czechs see homosexuality as morally wrong, whereas in Poland, this number was 48%, and in Hungary 53%.