Poland's government at odds over abortion rights
A bill to liberalise Poland's abortion law - one of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's key election promises - has failed in parliament: 215 deputies voted in favour and 218 against, with two abstentions and 23 absences. The governing coalition of liberals, moderates, conservatives and leftists is split over the legislation. Tuesday saw angry protests by the Women's Strike movement in front of the Sejm.
No more polite protests
Writing on the left-wing website Krytyka Polityczna, cultural anthropologist Katarzyna Przyborska urges the protest movement to take an uncompromising stance:
“If I can see any hope for women's rights anywhere, it's in showing how pissed off we are. The choice of words and tone employed by women standing up for their rights will never go back to being polite now. Outside the Sejm we saw uproar, insults, anger, disappointment and the naked political truth that women's lives, their real suffering, their fears, their plans, their independence, their ambitions - that none of this matters. ... I predict that any further attempts to dictate how women protest will be met with thunderous, contemptuous, truly satanic laughter and a curt 'fuck off'. ... Things will get very uncomfortable from here on.”
Insults won't change parliamentary majorities
Rzeczpospolita comments on the heated atmosphere:
“The right sniggered as the wrath of the Women's Strike movement turned against the PSL [the agrarian party in the governing coalition] and the liberal coalition government. ... Women's Strike's demonstrations are becoming a problem for the entire coalition, including Donald Tusk. ... Yes, some of the parties that form today's governing coalition had promised to liberalise abortion laws. ... But to claim that they have been deceived testifies to a lack of understanding of Polish politics. Or a lack of knowledge of simple parliamentary arithmetic, which can't be changed simply by hurling insults. Or unrealistic wishful thinking.”
This will cost Tusk his female supporters
Viktoria Großmann, Warsaw correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, says the Polish government should act with more common sense:
“The predominantly male deputies who simply let the hard-won compromise, which demanded many concessions from female MPs in particular, fall through, are behaving irrationally. But Tusk, too, is behaving irrationally when he suspends two party members in frustration because they refuse to vote as their party demands - instead of trying to convince them. Tusk knows that if women lose out, he - and with him the entire government - will lose their support. And if that's not an argument, what is?”