Poland's conservative president,
Andrezj Duda, has won a second 5-year term.
While all votes have yet to be counted,
Duda had more than 51.2 percent of the vote, the AP reported. Duda
faced Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, in a runoff
election held Sunday.
Last month, Duda pledged to defend
children from “LGBT ideology” if elected to a second term in
office.
In a “family charter” released to
shore up his conservative base, Duda reiterated his opposition to
same-sex marriage and adoption by gay and lesbian couples. He also
vowed to “ban the propagation of LGBT ideology” in schools and
other public institutions. And he described the movement to secure
LGBT rights as “a foreign ideology” and compared it to Communist
propaganda in the Soviet Union.
Duda, a Catholic, is also aligned with
the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is vocally opposed to
LGBT rights.
(Related: Gay
couple hands out rainbow masks on the streets of Poland.)
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, said that Duda's narrow
victory shows that “a great number of Polish people” do not
support his anti-LGBT views.
“President Andrezj Duda’s
reelection after running on a virulently anti-LGBTQ election platform
is confirmation that the fight for LGBTQ rights and freedoms is far
from over,” said HRC President Alphonso David. “However, Duda’s
narrow victory demonstrates that there are a great number of Polish
people who do not support his views, including his cruel campaign
pledge to ban same-sex couples from adopting children that need
loving homes, and his extreme anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Despite Duda’s
victory, LGBTQ advocates will continue to fight in Poland and
elsewhere for the basic respect and dignity that our community
deserves.”
(Related: LGBT
groups condemn Polish president's White House visit.)