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WORLD NEWS Friday 26 april 2019

Party leader calls LGBT rights an imported threat to Poland

By VANESSA GERA have been forced on them a long period of foreign
Associated Press as a result of Poland joining rule, while also supporting
WARSAW, Poland (AP) the EU 15 years ago. the democracy movement
— The chairman of Po- Kaczynski’s Law and Justice under communism.
land’s conservative ruling party won the last general But the church’s stand-
party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, election in 2015, the height ing has taken a hit as sex
has called the LGBT rights of Europe’s mass migration abuse victims increasingly
movement a foreign im- crisis. The party’s campaign speak publicly about past
port that threatens the Pol- included portraying Muslim crimes of accused priests.
ish nation. refugees as a threat to Po- Public opinion surveys show
Kaczynski, a member of land. falling support for having
parliament who wields In recent weeks, Law and nuns and priests, or even
tremendous influence as Justice has described the lay educators, teach reli-
leader of the Law and Jus- LGBT rights movement as gion in public schools, as is
tice party, also said during another danger to Pol- now the case.
a lecture on patriotism that ish families and children. A movie about the cler-
“everyone must accept LGBT rights have become gy abuse problem, “Kler”
Christianity” in Poland and increasingly visible as more (Clergy), became a block-
questioning the Roman Polish cities and towns hold buster hit last year. On
Catholic Church is unpatri- gay pride parades, even Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland’s conservative ruling Wednesday, Kaczynski
otic. places known as bastions party, takes part in a Polish tradition of taking a basket to church called the film an “attack
The positions Kaczynski ex- of the church and conser- for a blessing in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, April 20, 2019. on the church” and al-
pressed Wednesday in the vative values. Associated Press leged it’s the LGBT rights
central city of Wloclawek Miroslawa Makuchowska, long been revered as the language and spirit of Po- movement that puts Polish
came as Poland’s powerful from the group Campaign institution that kept the land’s people alive during children at risk.q
Catholic Church is under Against Homophobia, said
scrutiny for child sex abuse she thinks the party chair-
by clergy and superiors man’s anti-LGBT message
who might have covered was meant to distract at-
up for pedophile priests. tention from corruption
Poland also has two elec- scandals in the Catholic
tions this year: the vote Church and in the Polish
next month to elect the government.
country’s representatives “These are the same meth-
to the European Union ods and same messages”
parliament and a national used to demonize Muslim
election in the fall. immigrants, Makuchowska
With his remarks, Kaczynski said. “It’s appalling and
seemed to be tapping into frightening because it’s
the belief held by some scapegoating.”
Poles that liberal values The Catholic Church has

German Greens won’t back

aspiring EU head who woos

far right

By FRANK JORDANS
Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) — A leading candidate for Germany’s left-
leaning Greens said Thursday that his party won’t back
any candidate for president of the European Union’s ex-
ecutive branch who relies on support from the far right.
Populist and far-right parties critical of the EU are expect-
ed to make gains in the European parliamentary elec-
tions, which are being held in the 28 member countries
from May 23-26.
Sven Giegold, a German lawmaker in the European Par-
liament, said if the Greens’ own candidate for president
of the EU’s executive commission fails to win sufficient
support, which is likely, the party would seek to form “a
clear pro-European majority” in the bloc’s legislature to-
gether with other mainstream factions.
“We won’t back anyone who allows themselves to be
supported by the far right,” Giegold told reporters in Ber-
lin.
The comment was directed toward the center-right Euro-
pean People’s Party and its leading candidate, Manfred
Weber, who is hoping to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker
as president of the European Commission.q