Poland has charged three of its own citizens with working on behalf of Russian intelligence. They are accused of spreading disinformation, conducting reconnaissance of NATO troops, and undergoing firearms training in order to prepare for acts of sabotage.

On Wednesday morning, the National Prosecutor’s Office announced that charges had been brought against the trio, who were named only by their initials: AĆ (aged 62), DC (aged 50) and AP (aged 48). They were detained on 12 May by Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW).

“The suspects’ activities were aimed at providing propaganda support for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, as well as actively engaging in fundraising for the purchase of equipment for the Russian military,” wrote the prosecutor’s office.

“The detainees also performed a number of intelligence-gathering tasks commissioned by an identified Russian citizen associated with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), including reconnaissance of the location of NATO troops stationed in Poland,” they added.

Prosecutors also say that “members of the group underwent training in firearms and battlefield tactics, which constituted preparations for sabotage missions”.

The spokesman for the National Prosecutor’s Office, Przemysław Nowak, told a press conference later on Wednesday that “the suspects belonged to an informal pro-Russian paramilitary organisation”, reports news website Wirtualna Polska.

The trio have been charged under sections of Poland’s espionage law carrying a minimum sentence of eight years in prison, ranging up to life. After being charged and questioned, all three pleaded not guilty. A court has agreed to a request from prosecutors to place the suspects in pretrial detention.​ 

Poland has in recent years been a primary target for Russia’s so-called “hybrid actions”, which include acts of sabotage, disinformation and cyberattacks, as well as espionage.

A report earlier this year by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism identified Poland as “the most frequently targeted country” in Europe for acts of sabotage orchestrated by Russia.

Earlier this month, the ABW released figures showing that it launched twice as many espionage investigations in 2025 as in 2024. Over those two years combined, there were more investigations than across the previous three decades.

Moscow often carries out such actions not through traditional agents trained at home and sent abroad to conduct missions, but through people already on the ground, often amateurs hired through online messaging service Telegram and paid in cryptocurrencies.

Many such “disposable agents”, as they are often called, come from Poland’s large Ukrainian and Belarusian migrant communities. But some others have been Poles, motivated either by the money on offer or in some cases by ideological sympathies with Russia.

Last October, Polish prosecutors indicted a former employee of Warsaw city hall accused of spying for Russia. In February, a 29-year-old Polish man was indicted on suspicion of passing on information about Polish and NATO infrastructure to Russian intelligence.

Last month, prosecutors charged a soldier from Poland’s Territorial Defence Force with espionage. The suspect was reportedly active in a pro-Russian, anti-Ukrainian far-right group.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

New Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has visited Poland on his first foreign trip since taking office. Speaking alongside Polish counterpart Donald Tusk, he declared that his government can “learn from Poland” on restoring the rule of law, recovering frozen EU funds, and fighting corruption.

Tusk, meanwhile, hailed Magyar’s “historic victory”, which he said marked “Hungary’s return to Europe” after years of “problematic” rule by Viktor Orbán.

After Magyar won his landslide election victory in April, he confirmed that his first foreign trip as prime minister would be to Poland, which has longstanding ties with Hungary and where Tusk’s centrist, pro-EU government is closely aligned with Magyar’s Tisza party.

Unusually for a visiting foreign leader, Magyar first visited Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city, which was, in the second half of the 19th century and up to 1918, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. There, he visited a number of historical sites connected to Hungary.

Magyar subsequently travelled to Warsaw by train, saying that this gave him an “opportunity to show Hungarians what infrastructure investments have been made” with the support of EU funds.

“Unfortunately, in Hungary over the last 20 years, we haven’t experienced this,” he added, referring to the record of Orbán’s former government.

On Wednesday morning, Magyar met with Tusk, after which the pair spoke at a joint press conference. The Polish prime minister, who also met with Magyar during his election campaign, welcomed his counterpart’s victory.

“It is a sign of hope for millions of people in Europe and around the world that democracy, the rule of law, decency and morality in politics are not lost causes,” declared Tusk, likening it to when his own coalition unseated the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, an Orbán ally, in 2023.

Tusk said that Poland and Hungary would now be able to “act as one, both in Brussels, on geopolitical matters, and in pursuing various common interests”.

Both he and Magyar indicated the Visegrad Group – a regional forum comprising Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which has been largely moribund in recent years – could now be “renewed and revitalised”, in Tusk’s words.

This, in turn, would help strengthen the region’s voice in the European Union, “to make Europe more like us, because we have a lot to offer Europe”, said the Polish prime minister.

“The heart of Europe beats in Central and Eastern Europe,” added Magyar, who said that he hoped to expand Visegrad’s cooperation to also include Nordic and Balkan countries, as well as Austria.

The Hungarian prime minister, who is being accompanied on his trip to Poland by six of his ministers, said that his government would seek to follow the example of Tusk in restoring the rule of law, recovering frozen EU funds, and fighting corruption.

“Poland is a bit ahead [of us],” said Magyar. “Poland is at the forefront of all these countries [in central Europe]…It is a regional power…I’m very much counting on the [Tusk’s] experience, on the experience of the Polish government, the Polish nation.”

Tusk, meanwhile, said that Poland is “ready to provide assistance” in helping Hungary wean itself off reliance on Russian energy, as Poland itself has done in recent years.

He also expressed hope that, with Magyar in power, it would be easier to “work on a common European position towards Ukraine”. Orbán, a close ally of Moscow, often prevented the EU from taking a common stance in support of Ukraine.

After meeting Tusk, Magyar headed for talks with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, who is aligned with PiS and controversially visited Orbán shortly before the Hungarian elections.

Nawrocki’s office revealed that the pair were due to discuss bilateral relations, regional security and cooperation, and Polish support for Hungary’s efforts to become independent of Russian energy. However, no joint press conference was scheduled.

Subsequently, Magyar will travel onwards to the city of Gdańsk on Poland’s northern Baltic coast, which is Tusk’s hometown. The two prime ministers will meet there with Lech Wałęsa, the former Polish president, anti-communist leader, and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

A group of James Bond enthusiasts in Poland have launched a fundraiser to build a statue of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, 007’s archenemy, in the city of Gdynia, which was the fictional supervillain’s birthplace.

The project is being supported by the local authorities in Gdynia, where a plaster model of the planned bronze sculpture – depicting Blofeld and his famous cat – will go on display later this month.

Blofeld, head of the global criminal organisation SPECTRE, first appeared in Bond novel Thunderball, where author Ian Fleming revealed that “he was born in Gdynia of a Polish father and a Greek mother on 28 May, 1908” (the same date that Fleming himself was born).

In 1908, Gdynia was a small fishing village and Baltic Sea resort that was part of the German empire. Poland itself did not exist, having been partitioned since the late 18th century between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia, only regaining independence in 1918 at the end of World War One.

In newly independent Poland, Gdynia was developed into a major port city, and today has a population of almost 250,000.

According to Fleming’s biography, “after matriculating in economics and political history at the University of Warsaw, [Blofeld] studied engineering and radionics at the Warsaw Technical Institute and, at the age of twenty-five, obtained a modest post in the central administration of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs”.

“We don’t know how it came about that, of all the millions of different places, Fleming’s pin happened to land on Gdynia,” Rafał Król, one of the organisers of the grassroots initiative from a group of locally based Bond fans, told Radio Zet.

The proposed statue “won’t be a monument, because monuments are put up in honour of someone distinguished”, he clarified. “We want to erect a sculpture of a fictional character to remind people that he is one of us.”

The municipal authorities have offered their support and earmarked a site for the statue on Ejsmonda Street in the centre of the city, Joanna Kamień, another of the project’s authors, told local newspaper Dziennik Bałtycki.

However, the organisers must collect the 270,000 zloty (€63,600) needed to create and install the sculpture themselves, and for this purpose they have set up a crowdfunding page.

On 30 May, just after Blofeld’s birthday, a full-size plaster model of the statue created by the sculptor Wojciech Sęczawa will be unveiled, before going on display at Gdynia’s Nadmorski hotel.

It depicts the character in the position with which he is most commonly associated, sitting in an armchair with a cat in his lap, with a scarred face and bald head, reminiscent of Donald Pleasence’s portrayal of the character in the film You Only Live Twice. Blofeld was most recently played by Christoph Waltz in 2021’s No Time to Die.

Should they reach their fundraising target, the organisers’ dream is to unveil the new statue on 28 May, Blofeld and Fleming’s shared birthday, next year. They believe that theirs would be the first statue of a Bond character anywhere in the world.

Although Blofeld is an unequivocal “baddie”, the initiative aims not to “promote the dark side”, but to commemorate a “popcultural phenomenon” and a “simply fascinating story”, says Kamień.

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator, lecturer, and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.

Zapraszamy na #64 odcinek podsumowania tygodnia. Adrian Zandberg, przewodniczący Razem omawia najważniejsze wydarzenia tygodnia. Składamy ustawę Razem, która poprawi sytuację najemców na rynku. Polska Agencja Prasowa ma teorie spiskowe. Naukowcy walczą o 3% na naukę. USA nie jest już skupione na Europie. Ważna kontrola w Dino i więcej - zparaszamy!

00:00 Dość patologiom najmu!
02:37 "Powiesz coś o Eurowizji?"
03:10 "Stołówka" Premium
05:13 3%
05:46 TurboPolska
06:04 USA patrzy na pacyfik
08:08 Co z Dino?
09:36 Co słychać w Razem?

Wrocław has become the second Polish city to recognise a same-sex marriage conducted abroad, following the example of Warsaw, which last week began transcribing such marriages into its civil registry in line with European and Polish court orders.

“This long-awaited change has become a fact,” celebrated Alina Szeptycka, Wrocław’s plenipotentiary for equal treatment. “After many years, and recently also months of intense struggle, same-sex marriages concluded abroad are also marriages under Polish law.”

However, given that Polish law still does not allow for any form of same-sex union to be formed domestically, it remains unclear what the legal consequences of recognising such marriages conducted abroad will be.

The couple in question are Ryszard Ziobro and Tomasz Kwietko-Bębnowski (pictured above), who have been together for almost 50 years. After marrying in Austria last year, they returned to Wrocław and filed a request to transcribe their marriage into the local registry.

Up until this year, registry offices and courts in Poland have rejected such requests, often pointing to the article of Poland’s constitution that says: “Marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland.”

However, last November, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Poland must recognise same-sex marriages conducted in other EU member states.

That led Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) in March to order the Warsaw registry office to transcribe the marriage certificate of another Polish couple, Jakub Cupriak-Trojan and Mateusz Trojan, who fought a long legal battle to have their marriage, which took place in Germany, recognised in Poland. 

Last week, Warsaw’s mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, announced that the city had complied with the NSA order and transcribed the Cupriak-Trojan’s marriage certificate. He pledged that it would do the same for other same-sex Polish couples who have married in EU member states.

Unlike the Cupriak-Trojans and many other same-sex couples seeking to have their marriages recognised, Ziobro and Kwietko-Bębnowski did not go to court. Instead, they waited for Wrocław, which was keen to recognise their marriage, to be formally able to do so.

The city asked the interior ministry to issue a regulation introducing the necessary changes to the registry system to allow same-sex marriages to be entered into the system. Currently, it only recognises male-female marriages.

However, after Warsaw decided last week to recognise a same-sex marriage despite the government not changing the system, Wrocław has now followed suit.

Wrocław’s decision marks the first time a same-sex marriage has been recognised in Poland without a court order.

“This shows that the historic judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union and Polish courts are beginning to truly change the reality for same-sex couples in Poland,” wrote Replika, a magazine covering LGBT+ issues.

It also indicates that Warsaw’s groundbreaking decision will prompt other places, especially more liberal larger cities, to do the same. Many have already made clear they wish to do so.

However, given the lack of recognition of same-sex relationships in Polish law, it remains unclear what the legal effects of transcription will be.

Speaking to Polsat News last week, interior minister Marcin Kierwiński confirmed that the transcription of marriage certificates “does not mean that marriages concluded abroad will have each and every right” available to other married couples.

The government is also working on changes to the registry system to allow same-sex couples to be more easily entered.

Last week, digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, whose department is responsible for the civil registry system, announced that he had signed a draft regulation that would amend marriage certificates to allow recognition of same-sex marriages conducted abroad.

The regulation must also be approved by the interior ministry, and Kierwiński has pledged to do so “quickly”.

Their rush to action came in the wake of an order from Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who last week apologised to same-sex couples for the “years of rejection and humiliation” they have experienced due to Poland not legally recognising their relationships.

However, more significant moves to expand LGBT+ rights in Poland – such as allowing same-sex unions to be formed domestically – would require not just new regulations, which can be issued unilaterally by the government, but changes to legislation, which require the approval of parliament and the president.

Tusk’s ruling coalition, which ranges from left to centre right, has a parliamentary majority but includes conservative elements that have expressed reluctance towards expanding LGBT+ rights.

Even if parliamentary approval is obtained, President Karol Nawrocki, who is aligned with the right-wing opposition and regularly clashes with the government, is almost certain to veto any such bills.

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.

Swedish defence giant Saab has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Polish state defence group PGZ that will see them cooperate on naval production, servicing and technology.

The firms say that PGZ will be integrated into Saab’s supply chain, while they also aim to establish an underwater technology centre in Poland and explore joint production projects, including for a new torpedo.

The deal highlights and reinforces the growing ties between Poland and Sweden, two Baltic NATO allies that signed a strategic partnership in 2024 to enhance cooperation on defence and economic development.

Poland last year picked Saab as its preferred supplier of three new submarines for its navy. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the time that one reason Saab won the bid was its openness to invest in and transfer expertise to the Polish shipbuilding industry.

In March this year, Saab and PGZ agreed to cooperate on the maintenance and repair of those submarines. Under the new agreement signed this week, the pair will also collaborate more broadly on the servicing of surface and underwater vessels.

The Swedish company also says it will “integrate PGZ Group’s naval domain entities into Saab’s supply chain” while “pursuing selected export opportunities for both surface and underwater platforms, including rescue vessels”.

Additionally, the firms intend to establish an “underwater technology centre” in Poland and “explore the possibility to collaborate on a heavyweight torpedo”, says Saab.

Saab’s CEO, Micael Johansson, expressed satisfaction at the “speed at which our cooperation is advancing”.

He said that the new agreement “reflects a strong commitment to a deepening partnership between Polish and Swedish industry, while also contributing to enhanced security in the Baltic Sea and NATO’s eastern flank”.

His counterpart at PGZ, Adam Leszkiewicz, likewise hailed the deal as “an important step in the development of maritime competences in Poland and integration with international supply chains”.

“Maritime and submarine domains are becoming a key pillar of Polish-Swedish cooperation, from both a security and industrial perspective,” he added.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has increased its defence spending to the highest relative level in NATO. While Warsaw still buys much of its hardware abroad, in particular from the US and South Korea, it has also been seeking to bolster its domestic defence industry.

Meanwhile, Poland has in recent years sought to build closer ties across the Baltic region, helped by the fact that Finland and Sweden joined NATO after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, Poland and Sweden held their first bilateral military exercises in the Baltic Sea and Sweden bought €274 million worth of Piorun man-portable air-defence systems from Polish firm Mesko, a subsidiary of PGZ.

Poland has also deepened defence ties with Norway, whose Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace will be involved in developing a new Polish anti-drone system. Meanwhile, Poland will manufacture missiles for K239 Chunmoo rocket artillery systems that Norway is purchasing from South Korea.

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.

Two deputy leaders of Poland’s national-conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party have criticised Ukraine and Israel for giving Poland no points at Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest. One even called for Poland to “rethink relations” with the two countries.

Meanwhile, Poland’s Eurovision jury was the only one in Europe to award the maximum 12 points to Israel’s entry at the contest, while a public vote in Poland gave Ukraine full marks.

“The fact that our singer received zero points from both Ukraine and Israel is scandalous,” Tobiasz Bocheński, a deputy leader of PiS, told broadcaster RMF on Monday morning. “It was a purely political vote…It shows the perspective through which we are judged by these nations.”

“I think this should give many people pause for thought about our relations,” he continued. “If our singer receives maximum points from the Germans…and a lot of points from the Austrians, then it turns out she receives zero points from both Ukraine and Israel, then in my opinion, this is reason to think about our mutual relations.”

Meanwhile, Przemysław Czarnek, another of the party’s deputy leaders and its candidate for prime minister at next year’s elections, suggested that Ukraine’s voting showed a lack of appreciation for the enormous support Poland has shown since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“If I were Ukrainian, I would consider appreciating Poland for helping them maintain their independence, for being the first to help them fight for independence, and for the fact that, thanks to Poland and Poles, Ukraine is still fighting today,” said Czarnek, quoted by news website Wirtualna Polska.

PiS, which is now the largest opposition party but previously ruled Poland from 2015 to the end of 2023, oversaw much of the initial military, diplomatic and humanitarian support provided to Ukraine.

The PiS government regularly clashed with Israel, in particular over issues relating to World War Two and Holocaust history. In 2021, it withdrew the Polish ambassador to Israel amid a row over a proposed restitution law that Israel said would harm Holocaust survivors.

The current Polish government finally appointed a new ambassador last year, though it has also regularly clashed with Israel, in particular over the war in Gaza.

Eurovision – which, despite its name, includes the non-European countries of Israel and Australia – is often embroiled in politics. This year’s event, which took place in Austria, was boycotted by Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia and Iceland due to Israel’s participation.

The contest was won by Bulgaria’s entry, “Bangaranga”, performed by singer Dara. Israel’s Noam Bettan finished second with the song “Michelle”. Polish entry “Pray”, by singer-songwriter Alicja, ended up in 12th place.

The outcome of the contest is decided by each country handing out points to other countries based on both public voting and an expert jury. Twelve is the highest possible number of points and zero is the minimum.

Poland received zero points from the juries and public votes in both Israel and Ukraine. However, the German, Belgian, Moldovan and Austrian juries each gave Alicja 12 points.

By contrast, in Poland’s public vote, the winner was Ukraine, a result that may have been influenced by Ukrainians being by far Poland’s largest foreign national group. Israel’s entry was the eighth most popular, thereby receiving two points.

The Polish jury, meanwhile, awarded Israel the maximum 12 points and Ukraine one. In a social media post, the Israeli embassy in Warsaw gave “special thanks to the Polish jury for the recognition and warm welcome”.

The decision, however, drew criticism from some social media users in Poland, prompting one of the jury’s members, composer Filip Kuncewicz, to hit out in an Instagram post at the “threats and hate” he had received.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Police in Poland have detained five people, all Polish citizens in their teens, on suspicion of involvement in a violent attack on a group of Ukrainian teenagers in Warsaw last week.

In the wake of the incident, the city’s liberal mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, blamed the anti-Ukrainian rhetoric of right-wing politicians for “encouraging thugs” to carry out these kinds of attacks.

The attack took place on Thursday last week on Warsaw’s Świętokrzyski Bridge, with police saying that three Ukrainian teenagers were assaulted, one of whom required hospital treatment.

Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading daily, spoke with the hospitalised victim, whom they named only as Artem. He said that he and a group of friends, who had been speaking in Ukrainian and Russian, were attacked by a group of around ten Poles.

Artem was sprayed with pepper spray and beaten, resulting in a fractured skull. He says that the assailants tried to throw one of his friends off the bridge and shouted, “Fuck off back to Ukraine”. The incident was only brought to an end because a police car appeared, resulting in the attackers fleeing.

In an initial statement on Monday, local police said that “the current findings and evidence collected so far do not indicate that this incident was motivated by nationality”.

However, on Wednesday, Trzaskowski told a press conference that “everything indicates that this was a crime motivated by nationality and even racism”. The mayor said he was “incredibly saddened” that this had happened. “We often say that Warsaw is a tolerant and safe city.”

Trzaskowski issued a message to those who he believes are responsible for stirring hate towards Ukrainians.

“Your words – and I’m addressing right-wing politicians in particular – sometimes have precisely this kind of consequences,” said the mayor. “Verbal attacks on our guests from Ukraine can, unfortunately, be perceived by thugs as an encouragement to carry out this type of behaviour, and can end this way.”

The mayor also warned that such rhetoric and incidents serve the interests of Russia, which has long tried to stir animosity between Poles and Ukrainians.

“I think no one enjoys these kinds of incidents more than Moscow and Russian propaganda, which constantly tries to divide us from Ukrainians and incite Polish society against our Ukrainian guests,” said Trzaskowski.

Ukrainians are by far Poland’s largest foreign national group. The country is home to almost one million refugees who fled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as hundreds of thousands of other Ukrainian immigrants.

However, far-right groups have led a growing campaign against the large-scale presence of Ukrainians, which they say threatens Poland’s identity and also makes it harder for Poles to access housing, healthcare, education and other services.

In a social media post on Thursday, interior minister Marcin Kierwiński announced that “the police have detained five individuals, Polish citizens aged 15-18”, on suspicion of carrying out the attack on Świętokrzyski Bridge.

“Zero tolerance for aggression,” wrote Kierwiński, who also shared a video of the suspects being arrested.

In a further statement quoted by broadcaster RMF, the police said that “procedural activities are underway to thoroughly clarify all the circumstances of the incident and determine the role played by each of the young men”.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Poland granted citizenship to a record 19,135 people in 2025, up by 17% from the previous year and almost five times higher than a decade ago. Over half of recipients, 10,295, were Ukrainians, who make up Poland’s largest immigrant group.

The number of foreigners gaining Polish citizenship has risen steadily in recent years amid record levels of immigration. However, the government is currently working on legislation that would make it more difficult to obtain citizenship.

The new data, which come from the interior ministry, do not include people claiming citizenship through Polish descent. Under Polish law, such individuals are not granted citizenship, but simply have it confirmed. However, other foreigners can still obtain it in two main ways.

The most common route is for candidates to apply to the governor of the province where they reside. They must demonstrate stable income, housing and Polish language skills, while meeting the requirement for minimum length of residency.

For most applicants, that period is three years of permanent, continuous residence. However, it is shorter in certain cases, for example for spouses of Polish citizens or for holders of the so-called Pole’s Card (Karta Polaka), which is mainly granted to ethnic Poles from former Soviet states.

The second option is to apply directly to the president for citizenship. This route does not have a requirement for a certain period of residency; decisions are simply at the discretion of the president. But applicants must present their personal histories and reasons for seeking citizenship, alongside proof of ties to the country.

After Ukrainians, the largest national groups granted Polish citizenship last year were Belarusians (6,519), Russians (763), Vietnamese (497) and Turks (116).

Last year, the interior ministry presented plans to toughen the rules for obtaining Polish citizenship. They would increase the minimum residency period for most people from three to eight years and require applicants to take a test proving they are integrated and sign a declaration of loyalty.

The government also wants all of the new measures to apply not only to people who go through the normal application route, but also to those who take the option of applying directly to the president, who currently has discretion to issue citizenship without the usual criteria.

However, the plans have not been put to parliament, with the ministry announcing last week that it was still “working on the changes”.

“Citizenship will be treated as an earned privilege, not a formal certificate,” said the ministry, which pledged to put an end to “automatism” in granting citizenship and to avoid the “mistakes of other countries”.

In response to the new citizenship figures for 2025, Krzysztof Bosak, one of the leaders of the far-right opposition Confederation (Konfederacja) group, called them “another inglorious record” that reveal a “dangerous situation”.

“Poland has extremely liberal criteria for granting citizenship…probably everyone from right to left agrees that tightening them is necessary,” he wrote on X, also accusing Prime Minister Donald Tusk of “torpedoing” various proposed reforms.

Poland’s main opposition party, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), in October proposed its own bill that would, among other things, have raised the residency requirement to ten years and impose even stricter linguistic demands. However, the proposal was rejected by parliament in January.

Opposition-aligned President Karol Nawrocki last September also proposed his own bill to toughen citizenship requirements, including by increasing residency requirements to ten years.

Poland has over the last decade experienced levels of immigration unprecedented in the country’s history and among the highest in the EU.

For six years running, between 2017 and 2022, when PiS was in power, it issued more first residence permits to immigrants from outside the European Union than did any other member state. Tusk’s government has sought to introduce tougher migration controls, resulting in falling numbers of new arrivals.

Last month, government figures showed that the number of foreigners with residence permits in Poland has reached two million, making up just over 5% of the country’s population.

Over three quarters of those are Ukrainians (1.55 million), with the next largest groups being Belarusians (139,300), Indians (26,100), Georgians (22,200), Russians (19,500), Vietnamese (15,100) and Turks (14,500).

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.

The government’s majority in parliament has selected 15 new members of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), a disputed body responsible for nominating judges that is at the heart of Poland’s rule-of-law crisis.

Most of the new members were chosen by judges themselves, rather than politicians, as part of the government’s efforts to restore the legitimacy of the KRS.

However, the vote to select them was boycotted by the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party because the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) had issued an injunction ordering that it not take place. The government ignores TK rulings due to the presence on the tribunal of judges unlawfully appointed under the former PiS government.

The legitimacy of the KRS has been in dispute since 2017, when the national-conservative PiS government of the time changed the manner in which the council’s members are appointed. Previously, 15 out of the 25 were chosen by judges themselves. However, following PiS’s reforms, those 15 were selected by parliament.

As before, the remaining ten members of the KRS are made up of: six members of parliament, the justice minister, an appointee of the president, and the heads of the Supreme Court and Supreme Administration Court (NSA).

Expert bodies widely condemned the changes introduced by PiS as undermining judicial independence by giving politicians decisive influence over the KRS. Polish and European court rulings have found the KRS to no longer be a legitimate body as a result.

That has in turn called into question the legitimacy of the thousands of judges appointed by the KRS since it was overhauled – and, by extension, all of the rulings issued by them.

The more liberal government that replaced PiS in 2023 has pledged to restore the KRS’s legitimacy. However, its proposed law to bring back the previous system, under which most KRS members were chosen by the judiciary, was vetoed by opposition-aligned President Nawrocki in February.

Given that the terms of KRS members were set to end in May 2026, the ruling coalition launched a “plan B” for selecting new ones. It would involve parliament, where the government has a majority, approving KRS members democratically chosen by judges themselves.

In April, judges held assemblies to select their candidates for the KRS. However, last week, just before parliament was due to vote on appointing new KRS members, the TK issued an injunction ordering that the process be halted until the TK has ruled on a complaint by PiS MPs regarding the constitutionality of the selection procedure.

The ruling coalition ignored that injunction and, on Friday, the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, went ahead with selecting 15 new members of the KRS. The vote was boycotted by all MPs from PiS.

“We will not take part in this vote because these are illegal actions,” declared PiS MP Michał Wójcik, quoted by news website Wirtualna Polska. He warned that there could be “criminal consequences” for those involved in the vote.

The government’s majority voted in favour of 13 KRS candidates chosen by judges themselves. Because, by law, each parliamentary caucus must be allowed to select at least one candidate, the two remaining places were filled by one chosen by PiS, Łukasz Piebiak, and another by the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), Łukasz Zawadzki.

Piebiak is a controversial choice because, as well as being a judge, he served in the former PiS government and has been accused of coordinating a group of PiS-linked judges who ran an anonymous online smear campaign against colleagues who opposed PiS’s reforms.

“PiS is shooting itself in the foot with Piebiak’s nomination,” justice minister Waldemar Żurek told news website Onet. “He is a discredited person.”

Żurek, however, welcomed the fact that “we elected the maximum number of good judges to the KRS while still complying with the bad law authored by PiS”.

But he acknowledged that the TK and opposition-aligned President Karol Nawrocki, who is responsible for formally appointing judges chosen by the KRS, may “attempt to block” the work of the newly elected KRS, just as they have recently blocked parliament’s selection of four new TK judges.

On Monday morning, the outgoing head of the KRS, Dagmara Pawełczyk-Woicka, who was appointed to the council under PiS and has criticised the current government’s actions, announced that she had stepped down on Friday.

She noted that it is now the duty of the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Manowska, to convene a plenary session to choose a new head of the KRS.

“Whether the chief justice will convene the session in the composition selected by the Sejm on [Friday] (in violation of the law) or in the previous composition, I leave to her decision, added Pawełczyk-Woicka.

Manowska herself was appointed to the Supreme Court by the KRS after it was overhauled by PiS and has also been a critic of the current government. Her term as chief justice is due to end later this month but Nawrocki has not yet chosen her successor.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

The Polish government has denied that a reported last-minute decision by the US to cancel the deployment of thousands of troops to Europe pertains to Poland.

Leading American media outlets have reported that the rotational forces were meant to be deployed to Poland. However, the Polish defence ministry says that any planned changes relate to other parts of Europe, in particular President Donald Trump’s recent decision to reduce troop numbers in Germany.

On Wednesday, defence-focused news outlets Stars and Stripes and Military Times reported that the US Department of Defense had “abruptly cancelled” the deployment of the 2nd Armoured Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.

Both outlets led their reports with the claim that the troops, almost 4,000 in total, had been due to deploy to Poland. However, Stars and Stripes added later in its article that the rotational forces had been destined for “Poland and other parts of NATO’s eastern flank”.

Last week, the brigade had begun preparations to depart for Europe, with division commander Major General Tom Feltey saying that the deployment “sends a clear and unmistakable signal” and that “our adversaries are paying attention”.

Some of the troops have already reached Poland while their equipment is already in transit, according to the deployment plan, reports Military Times.

Neither outlet included any official, on-the-record confirmation of the cancellation, citing only unnamed officials. A Pentagon spokesman, Javan Rasnake, said the Defence Department had “nothing to announce on this at this time”.

The Wall Street Journal subsequently also reported that “the Pentagon abruptly cancelled the deployment of an armoured brigade to Poland”.

However, in a post on X that included a link to the Military Times article, Poland’s defence minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, wrote that “this matter does not concern Poland” and “is linked to the previously announced change in the presence of part of the US armed forces in Europe”.

The minister in charge of the security services, Tomasz Siemoniak, shared Kosiniak-Kamysz’s post and added: “The revocation of the US army rotation does not apply to Poland.”

In a separate post, deputy defence minister Cezary Tomczyk wrote that the situation “relates to Germany, not Poland”.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw around 5,000 troops from Germany. His decision came after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had publicly declared that the US was being “humiliated” in its negotiations with Iran

Last year, the US also decided to reduce its troop numbers in Romania, while Trump has suggested that there could be further withdrawals in Germany, Italy and Spain. He has regularly criticised European NATO allies for failing to support US military action against Iran.

Poland, which hosts around 10,000 US troops, has expressed openness to hosting any forces that are withdrawn from Germany.

In its article, Stars and Stripes suggests that the easiest way for the US to meet its aim to reduce troop numbers in Germany by 5,000 would be to cut back rotational missions in Europe, such as that of the 2nd Armoured Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.

“While most [rotational] forces operate outside of Germany, many of the brigades that have rotated to the continent have carried out parts of their mission in Germany,” they wrote.

“If that were the case for the [2nd Armoured Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division], some of those numbers could theoretically count toward the 5,000 troop tally.”

On Thursday morning, speaking to reporters in parliament, Kosiniak-Kamysz again emphasised that “the number of American troops in Poland is not decreasing” and in fact “we are working to increase both the size and operational capabilities of the American military presence in Poland”.

“The reorganisation of US troops in Europe may mean that other US brigades will be assigned to individual countries, but the changes do not concern a reduction of the contingent in Poland,” he added, quoted by news website Interia.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Two leading NGOs, Amnesty International and Human Rights First, have urged Poland to stop helping the US deport people to Ukraine through Polish airports and territory. They say that sending people into a war zone is a violation of international law.

According to the NGOs’ findings, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted two operations – one in November 2025, the other in March 2026 – to send over 50 people to Ukraine through Poland.

That prompted Amnesty and Human Rights First to send a letter to Poland’s foreign and interior ministers about the issue in mid-April, since when a further ICE flight containing an unknown number of people being sent to Ukraine landed at Rzeszów Jasionka Airport.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has become the primary hub for people and equipment going in and out of Ukraine.

“Poland has stood by Ukraine’s side since Russia began its war of aggression, providing temporary protection to nearly 1 million Ukrainian refugees,” noted Anna Błaszczak-Banasiak, director of Amnesty International Poland.

The fact that Poland is now involved in “forcibly transferring Ukrainians into an active war zone, where missiles strike nationwide, shocks the conscience and violates international law”, added Uzra Zeya, CEO of Human Rights First.

“Poland should play no role in these unlawful operations that rip families apart, divide communities and put people’s lives at risk,” she added. The NGOs note that, under international law, Poland has an obligation not to expel or return people to places where their lives or freedom could be at risk.

Amnesty and Human Rights First pointed to a report in March by CNN, which spoke to some of those who had been on the deportation flights.

“The group was flown to Poland and transported to the Ukrainian border by US officials who then handed them over to Polish officials who escorted them across the border,” wrote CNN.

It noted the case of one deportee who had entered the US legally with his partner under the Biden-era Uniting for Ukraine humanitarian programme. While his partner had her stay extended once the initial two-year term expired, his application remained “pending” for over a year before he was arrested by ICE and deported.

Amnesty and Human Rights First addressed the issue in a letter to Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski and interior minister Marcin Kierwiński on 17 April.

They warned that “forcibly sending individuals to an active war zone violates the[ir] rights” and “urged your government to uphold its international commitments to uphold non-refoulement and to reject the Trump administration’s cruel and inhumane mass removal campaign”.

Non-refoulement is a principle of international law prohibiting the deportation of people to a country where there life or freedom is threatened.

As the Polish authorities have not responded to the letter, the NGOs have now decided to make it public. The Polish government has so far made no public comment on the issue.

Poland itself has since last year stepped up deportations of foreigners who are in Poland unlawfully or have committed other crimes while in the country.

In 2025, Poland forcibly removed just over 2,100 foreigners, almost twice as many as in the previous year. Over half of the deportees, 1,150 of them, were Ukrainians, who are by far Poland’s largest immigrant group.

In one high-profile incident last year, the Polish authorities sought to deport 57 Ukrainians and six Belarusians involved in criminal behaviour at a concert in Warsaw’s National Stadium by Belarusian rapper Max Korzh.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Poland has legally recognised a same-sex relationship for the first time, after the city of Warsaw complied with a court order to transcribe into its civil registry a marriage between two men that took place in Germany.

“This is an open and tolerant city,” declared mayor Rafał Trzaskowski (pictured above right, at a 2023 pride march). “The defence of minorities who have been attacked for many years is paramount to us. Warsaw is for everyone.”

However, given that domestic Polish law still does not allow for any form of same-sex union, it remains unclear what the legal consequences of recognising such marriages conducted abroad will be. Trzaskowski has called on the government to take action to provide clarity.

The couple in question, Jakub Cupriak-Trojan and Mateusz Trojan, are Polish citizens who have fought a years-long legal battle to have their marriage, which took place in Berlin in 2018, recognised in Poland.

Their initial attempts were rejected by Warsaw’s registry office and courts, which cited the article of Poland’s constitution that says: “Marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland.”

By 2023, the case had reached Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court (NSA), which in turn asked the Court of Justice of the European Union for a ruling on the issue.

Last November, the CJEU ruled that Poland must recognise same-sex marriages conducted in other EU member states. That was in turn followed by an NSA ruling in March ordering the Warsaw registry office to transcribe the Cupriak-Trojans’ marriage certificate.

However, there have remained doubts as to how the authorities would comply with those rulings, given that Poland’s civil registry only allows marriages between a man and a woman to be entered. The government has discussed how to do this, but so far has not enacted any changes.

On Tuesday this week, Trzaskowski, who has been a vocal supporter of expanding LGBT+ rights, announced that his city had now officially received the NSA’s ruling and would implement it “in the coming days”.

On Thursday, he revealed that the Cupriak-Trojans’ marriage had been transcribed into the civil registry. He also confirmed that the city would do the same with other same-sex marriages involving Polish citizens conducted in other EU countries.

Asked how the city had managed to transcribe the marriage certificate given that the system only recognises male-female marriages, Trzaskowski said that they had done it “in the way we deemed most appropriate, after consultation with registry offices and organisations working for LGBT+ rights”.

Jakub Cupriak-Trojan confirmed in a social media post that one of their names had been entered in the field marked “man” and the other in the one marked “woman”, despite both being men.

“Under current law, this is the most sensible solution,” wrote Cupriak-Trojan, as it means that, once the regulations change and the fields are no longer called “man” and “woman”, each spouse will have their data in the correct place.

It remains unclear when those regulations will be changed. On Tuesday this week, Prime Minister Donald Tusk issued an apology to same-sex couples for the “years of rejection and humiliation” they have experienced due to Poland not legally recognising their relationships.

He pledged that the government would seek “as soon as possible” to implement the recent CJEU and NSA rulings. However, he provided no clear details of how this would happen, suggesting it would involve a combination of government regulations and “additional legislative solutions”.

The problem with the latter element is that, while government regulations can be issued unilaterally, legislative changes require approval from parliament and the president.

Tusk’s ruling coalition does have a parliamentary majority, but includes conservative elements who have expressed reluctance towards expanding LGBT+ rights. Even if parliamentary approval is obtained, opposition-aligned right-wing President Karol Nawrocki seems certain to veto any such bills.

On Wednesday evening, digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, whose department is responsible for the civil registry system, announced that he had signed a draft regulation that would amend marriage certificates to allow recognition of same-sex marriages conducted abroad.

“The marriage certificate will include a clear description indicating whether it concerns a marriage between a woman and a man, a woman and a woman, or a man and a man,” said Gawkowski. However, he noted that the regulation still needed approval from the interior minister, Marcin Kierwiński.

On Thursday morning, Kierwiński told Polsat News that he hoped to sign Gawkowski’s draft regulation “quickly, within the next few days”.

A further unresolved question is what the legal effects of transcribing foreign same-sex marriages into the Polish civil registry will be, given that Polish law does not recognise any form of same-sex relationships.

Trzaskowski highlighted that issue earlier this week, and today again emphasised that government action is needed to clarify the situation.

Speaking to Polsat News today, Kierwiński confirmed that the transcription of marriage certificates “does not mean that marriages concluded abroad will have each and every right” available to other married couples.

Last year, Tusk’s coalition agreed on a draft law that would grant certain legal rights to same-sex couples, though without formally allowing them to marry or form a civil partnership. However, since then, the legislation has not been voted on in parliament and, even if it were to pass, would face a likely presidential veto.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

A member of the European Parliament from Poland’s national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party has been barred from entering the UK, where he had planned to attend and speak at a rally in London this weekend organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson.

On Tuesday evening, Dominik Tarczyński shared a screenshot of a message from the British Home Office informing him that his Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), which allows entry to the UK without a visa, had been cancelled.

“This is because: Your presence in the UK is not considered conducive to the public good,” read the message. “You cannot appeal this decision.”

“This is what communism looks like in the 21st century,” wrote Tarczyński, who said that he would sue “communist” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer personally.

Former British Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss described the decision to ban Tarczyński as “shocking”. She noted that, in the European Parliament, he is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group that the British Conservative Party was also part of before Brexit.

However, Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, wrote on social media that, by “addressing the prime minister of our ally Great Britain, Sir Keir Starmer, as a ‘communist’, Tarczyński has unfortunately confirmed that he is an unhinged extremist”.

Tarczyński is even “more dangerous for Poland than for the UK”, added Sikorski, who is a deputy leader of the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), Poland’s main ruling party. 

PiS ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023 and is now the main opposition party. Tarczyński is not a particularly senior figure, serving as an MP from 2015 to 2020 and since then as an MEP, but he enjoys a relatively high profile internationally due to his vocal opposition to Muslim immigration to Europe.

In a 2018 interview with Channel 4 News in the UK, Tarczyński declared his pride that Poland was taking in “zero illegal Muslim migrants”.

Tarczyński has ties to Donald Trump’s MAGA movement as well as to Robinson (whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), the most prominent far-right, anti-Muslim activist in the UK.

Last year, Tarczyński marched alongside Robinson at his Unite the Kingdom rally, which drew over 100,000 people to London. The Polish politician also gave a speech from the main stage at the event, leading the crowd in a chant of “Send them [migrants] back”.

“We have to be very radical,” declared Tarczyński. “Zero means zero. Enough is enough…Protect your family, protect your children, fight for your country.”

“We are taking our Christian Europe back. We are taking this continent, because this is our home,” he continued. “I love Europe. I love my culture. I love my identity. I love this crowd. I love being European.”

In recent days, Tarczyński has been using his social media profiles to promote his participation a new Unite the Kingdom rally, which is being organised this Saturday by Robinson in London. The revocation of his ETA, however, means it is unlikely he will now attend.

On Monday, Starmer announced that the UK would block “far-right agitators” from entering the country to attend the event, reports The Guardian.

The Standard reports that among those banned are US-based commentators Joey Mannarino and Valentina Gomez, Belgian politician Filip Dewinter, Catalan commentator Ada Lluch and Dutch activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek.

Last week, another Polish politician, Sławomir Mentzen, who is one of the leaders of the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), another opposition group, was briefly held at a London airport when entering the UK before eventually being allowed to proceed into the country for a private family visit.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Już oficjalnie: mamy pierwszego męża i męża w Polsce. Ale to dopiero początek. Za małżeństwem Trojan pójdą inni, a pary jednopłciowe, które dostaną dokument z orzełkiem, zapowiadają dalszą walkę o równe prawa

• Anton Ambroziak
• Angelika Pitoń

„Dziś dokonaliśmy pierwszej transkrypcji małżeństwa pary jednopłciowej” – ogłosił 14 maja podczas konferencji prasowej w warszawskim ratuszu prezydent Warszawy Rafał Trzaskowski. Chodzi o Jakuba i Mateusza Trojanów, którzy najpierw przed Trybunałem w Luksemburgu, a potem przed Naczelnym Sądem Administracyjnym w Polsce wywalczyli wyroki, nakazujące uznanie ich ślubu zawartego w Niemczech.

Rafał Trzaskowski przekazał, że od teraz wszystkie wnioski o transkrypcję będą szybko rozpatrywane przez warszawski Urząd Stanu Cywilnego, niezależnie od tego, czy para przeszła zawiłą drogę sądową, czy nie.

„Ja tutaj nie mam żadnego luzu, jest jasna linia orzecznicza” – mówił Trzaskowski. „Wnioski, które były zawieszone, będą odwieszone. Natomiast jeśli pary dostały odmowy w poprzednich latach, będą mogły złożyć wnioski jeszcze raz i transkrypcja zostanie wykonana” – zadeklarował prezydent Warszawy.

„Bardzo się cieszę, że po kilkunastu latach batalii w sądach krajowych i międzynarodowych doszliśmy do uznania małżeństw tej samej płci w Polsce” – mówi nam adwokatka Anna Mazurczak, reprezentująca Mateusza i Jakuba przed sądami. „Zawsze byłam przekonana, że droga do równości małżeńskiej w Polsce wiedzie przez uznanie zagranicznych małżeństw. Standard ochrony międzynarodowej rozwija się dużo szybciej niż krajowe ustawodawstwo” – ocenia Mazurczak.

Prawniczka wskazuje, że dzisiejsza historyczna decyzja to „stopa w drzwiach”.

„Kolejny krok to uznanie, że małżeństwa tej samej płci mają wszystkie uprawnienia, co małżeństwo kobiety i mężczyzny, łącznie z możliwością adopcji dziecka drugiego małżonka” – dodaje Mazurczak.

Mąż i mąż. Bez obraźliwych adnotacji

Mateusz i Jakub otrzymali odpis aktu małżeństwa nie we fleszu kamer, ale podczas zamkniętego spotkania z Rafałem Trzaskowskim.

W oświadczeniu przesłanym OKO.press komentują:

"Cieszymy się i mamy nadzieję, że kolejne transkrypcje, na które czeka wiele par, będą dokonywane bez zbędnej zwłoki.

Dziękujemy naszym pełnomocniczkom i pełnomocnikom. To oni: Anna Mazurczak, Milena Adamczewska-Stachura, Paweł Knut i Artur Kula są autorkami i autorami tego sukcesu.

To ich wytrwałości i ciężkiej pracy, a nie działaniom polityków, zawdzięczamy uznanie małżeństw osób tej samej płci przez Polskę.

Jesteśmy wdzięczni wszystkim osobom, które – jak my – 23 lata temu głosowały w referendum za wstąpieniem Polski do Unii Europejskiej. Cieszymy się też, że polskie sądy coraz częściej i śmielej sięgają bezpośrednio do prawa międzynarodowego i prawa Unii Europejskiej, szczególnie w zakresie ochrony praw człowieka".

Jak będzie wyglądał ich akt, skoro w Polsce nadal nie mamy systemowego rozwiązania tej kwestii? Przypomnijmy: w środę wieczorem minister cyfryzacji Krzysztof Gawkowski podpisał projekt stosownego rozporządzenia. Ale ono wejdzie w życie dopiero jesienią. Rozwiązanie, które wybrał dziś stołeczny ratusz, żeby przeskoczyć problemy techniczne, jest tymczasowe.

„Dokonaliśmy transkrypcji w sposób, który uznaliśmy za najbardziej stosowny – po konsultacjach z innymi urzędami stanu cywilnego oraz organizacjami działającymi na rzecz praw społeczności LGBT+” – przekazał Rafał Trzaskowski.

Dane małżonków zostaną wpisane w obie dostępne rybryki – kobiety i mężczyzny. To oznacza, że ratusz nie skorzystał z wytycznych przygotowanych przez ministerstwo cyfryzacji.

Jak ujawniło OKO.press, resort ministra Gawkowskiego proponował wpisywać dane drugiego małżonka w polu przeznaczonym na adnotację, co utrudniałoby skuteczną identyfikację małżeństwa. Nie mówiąc już o walorze godnościowym: akt małżeństwa byłby w praktyce jednostronny.

Urzędnicy rozwiązanie wynaleźli sami

Warszawa poszła więc tropem rekomendowanym przez organizacje i urzędników. „Nie widzę potrzeby, by komplikować sprawę i tworzyć akt o ograniczonej mocy dowodowej, który nawet po zmianie rozporządzenia w sprawie wzoru dokumentów wydawanych z rejestru będzie nadawał się do unieważnienia, bo nie będzie można z niego wydawać normalnych odpisów. Uważam, że należy wpisać obu małżonków w pola mężczyzna i kobieta, uprzednio pytając samych zainteresowanych, kogo wpisać, w którą rubrykę i wyjaśniając, że tylko takie są dostępne” – tłumaczył nam Rafał Bednarz, prezes Oddziału Śląskiego Stowarzyszenia Urzędników Stanu Cywilnego RP.

Trzaskowski mówił, że w wydaniu tej decyzji Warszawa kierowała się bezpieczeństwem i poczuciem godności społeczności, która przez lata była w Polsce atakowana. „Warszawa jest dla wszystkich” – powtarzał wielokrotnie Trzaskowski.

Prawicowi dziennikarze, którzy tłumnie przybyli dziś do warszawskiego ratusza, pytali prezydenta Warszawy o to, czy będzie uznawał też wielożeństwo. „Apeluję, aby nie robić sobie z tego dnia żartów i z powagą oraz szacunkiem podchodzić do wszystkich obywateli RP” – odpowiedział Trzaskowski.

Co dalej? Walka!

Od wyroku TSUE minęło pół roku, ale dzisiejsza decyzja stołecznego magistratu to dopiero początek walki o równe prawa. Jakub i Mateusz Trojanowie, a także reszta par, które uzyskają transkrypcję, będą teraz walczyć przed urzędami (a potem może i sądami) o przyznanie praw, które mają małżeństwa równej płci.

„Dla większości moich klientów najpilniejszą sprawą jest możliwość objęcia ubezpieczeniem zdrowotnym małżonka. Najpierw zwrócimy się więc z pismem do NFZ” – mówi nam Anna Mazurczak. ZUS już poinformował, że będzie traktował pary tej samej płci na równi z innymi małżeństwami. Kolejne są więc urzędy skarbowe, pozostające w domenie ministra finansów Andrzeja Domańskiego.

Prezydent Rafał Trzaskowski wskazał, że uprawnienia przysługujące małżeństwom jednopłciowym zostaną uregulowane na gruncie prawa krajowego, odrębną ustawą. Rząd nie precyzuje jednak dziś, jak miałaby ona wyglądać.

Anna Mazurczak w rozmowie z OKO.press podnosi, że ustawa nie jest w ogóle potrzebna. „Transkrypcja zagranicznego aktu małżeństwa utwierdza nas w przekonaniu, że pod pojęciem małżonków rozumiemy nie tylko pary różnej płci, ale także pary tej samej płci. To oznacza, że definicja małżonków musi być tak samo rozumiana co najmniej w obszarach objętych prawem unijnym, czyli dotyczącym podatków, zabezpieczenia społecznego, czy ochrony zdrowia” – wskazuje prawniczka.

„Jasne jest dla mnie też, że ochrona życia prywatnego i rodzinnego, a także zakaz dyskryminacji, wymagają, żebyśmy przyznali parom tej samej płci wszystkie uprawnienia bez różnicowania. Będziemy kontynuować postępowania przed sądami. Jestem pewna, że w końcu międzynarodowe instytucje przyznają małżonkom tej samej płci wszystkie uprawnienia, łącznie z adopcją” – dodaje Mazurczak.

„To tylko kolejny krok”

Podczas konferencji w stołecznym ratuszu posłanka KO Dorota Łoboda wyraźnie podkreśliła, że ustawa o statusie osoby najbliższej, która wróci do Sejmu jeszcze w maju, jest alternatywnym rozwiązaniem wobec transkrypcji. „Dziś zrobiliśmy krok w stronę równości; dostrzeżenia przez państwo polskie, że małżeństwo mogło być zawarte przez osoby tej samej płci. Ustawa o statusie osoby najbliższej to projekt odrębny. Jesteśmy na finiszu prac w komisji. Jeszcze przed wakacjami ustawa trafi na biurko prezydenta” – deklarowała Łoboda, potwierdzając tym samym wcześniejsze doniesienia OKO.press sprzed dwóch tygodni.

Pierwszy antyrządowy protest pod KPRM domagający się transkrypcji aktów małżeństwa par jednopłciowych. Fot. Robert Kowalewski, Agencja Wyborcza.pl

„Dzisiaj jest kluczowy dzień dla społeczności” – mówi wprost Miko Czerwiński kierujący Kampanią Przeciw Homofobii. „Wpis pierwszego małżeństwa pary jednopłciowej w rejestry stanu cywilnego i decyzja Rafała Trzaskowskiego, by zrobić to od ręki, pokazuje, że takie rozwiązanie jest możliwe i Polska powinna w pełni rozpoznawać prawa par osób tej samej płci. Jesteśmy jeszcze w rozwiązaniu tymczasowym i cały czas czekamy na finalne rozporządzenie stworzone przez wicepremiera Gawkowskiego i podpisane przez ministra Kierwińskiego, tak żeby wszystkie pary, które wzięły ślub za granicą, mogły w Polsce realizować swoje prawa. Oczywiście to tylko kolejny krok do pełnej równości małżeńskiej w Polsce, która w końcu dzięki działaniu społeczeństwa obywatelskiego nadejdzie” – zapewnia Czerwiński.

„Oczywiście dziś się cieszymy, ale z poczuciem zażenowania” – mówi nam Hubert Sobecki ze Stowarzyszenia Miłość Nie Wyklucza. ”Prezydent Warszawy powiedział, że nie będzie łamał prawa. Lepiej późno niż wcale, ale pamiętajmy, że był zobowiązany do wydania takiej decyzji już w listopadzie po wyroku TSUE” – dodaje Sobecki.

Aktywista ocenia, że transkrypcja to mocna podstawa pod walkę o pełną równość małżeńską. "Naszym celem na najbliższe lata jest mieć jak najwięcej par, których małżeństwa są zarejestrowane w Polsce; które posiadają jak największą liczbę praw. Rząd powinien wziąć się do pracy i wydać wytyczne podległym instytucjom, żeby honorowały akty małżeństwa par tej samej płci” – mówi Sobecki. „Rząd został przyparty do muru wyrokami sądów. Teraz panicznie reaguje na to, że mielibyśmy domagać się jakiś praw wynikających z transkrypcji. Tu nie ma co panikować, trzeba działać. Przeprosiny premiera są ważnym, ale symbolicznym gestem. My chcemy konkretów. A prawdziwe przeprosiny premier powinien zacząć od siebie: to on w latach 2012-2013 trzykrotnie ukręcił łeb ustawom o związkach partnerskich, a w tej kadencji nie zrobił nic, żeby to zmienić”.

Anton Ambroziak

Rocznik ‘92. Dziennikarz i reporter. Uhonorowany nagrodami: Amnesty International „Pióro Nadziei” (2018), Kampanii Przeciw Homofobii “Korony Równości” (2019). W OKO.press pisze o migracjach, społeczności LGBT+, edukacji, polityce mieszkaniowej i sprawiedliwości społecznej. Członek n-ost - międzynarodowej sieci dziennikarzy dokumentujących sytuację w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej. Gdy nie pisze, robi zdjęcia. Początkujący fotograf dokumentalny i społeczny. Zainteresowany antropologią wizualną grup marginalizowanych oraz starymi technikami fotograficznymi.

Angelika Pitoń

Dziennikarka OKO.press. Pisze o prawach pracowniczych, lokatorskich i sprawach społecznych. Absolwentka Szkoły Praw Człowieka przy HFHR. Finalistka nagrody im. Dariusza Fikusa za dziennikarstwo najwyższej próby, Pióra Nadziei Amnesty International czy Korony Równości Kampanii Przeciw Homofobii. W latach 2017-2025 związana z "Gazetą Wyborczą".

Zapraszamy na #63 Podsumowanie tygodnia Razem. Adrian Zandberg o wydarzeniach politycznych minionego tygodnia. W tym tygodniu: Sławomir Mentzen (Konfederacja) poszedł na wywiad u Rymanowskiego Live i manipuluje o poprawczakach (lub nie umie liczyć), ale też ZNOWU zmienia poglądy, Uniwersytet Warszawski oferuje studentom, nie stołówkę, a Premium Restaurację, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość chce zakazać krypto, Tomasz Trela (Nowa Lewica) ciepło o Petru w rządzie, minister zdrowia zadowolona opowiada o „uśmiechniętych pacjentach", Zbigniew Ziobro w USA i Mateusz Merta o lokalnych działaniach Razem.

00:00 Uniwersytet PREMIUM
03:12 Uśmiechnięta Polska i upadająca ochrona zdrowia
04:45 Nowa Lewica chce w rządzie... Petru? xd
05:53 PiS jednak nie kocha krypto
08:26 Sławomir "program się zmienił" Mentzen
09:49 Mentzen nie umie liczyć
10:48 Ziobro w USA
13:17 Co słychać w Razem?
17:06 Kącik muzyczny!

The crisis around Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) deepened further on Tuesday after the tribunal itself ruled that the president does not have an obligation to swear in new TK judges appointed by parliament.

The decision effectively endorses last month’s decision by President Karol Nawrocki not to swear in four new TK judges. Both the TK’s chief justice, Bogdan Święczkowski, and Nawrocki are aligned with the right-wing opposition, while the new judges were chosen by the more liberal government’s majority in parliament.

The TK’s ruling was immediately rejected by the government, which does not recognise the legitimacy of the tribunal in its current form due to the presence of judges who were appointed unlawfully by the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is now in opposition.

In March, the government’s majority in the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, elected six new judges to fill vacancies on the 15-person tribunal. However, under the law, judges only take up their positions after taking an oath before the president.

Nawrocki, who regularly clashes with the government, invited only two of the six to be sworn in, arguing that there were doubts over the legality of the Sejm’s election of the judges.

That prompted the remaining four judges to organise their own alternative swearing-in ceremony in parliament before a notary, later submitting their oaths to the president in writing. But, when they turned up at the TK to begin their terms, they were rejected by Święczkowski.

Last week, the European Court of Human Rights issued an interim measure requiring that the TK accept the four judges. However, it was rejected by the TK, which argued that the ECHR “does not have the authority” to rule on this issue.

On Tuesday this week, the TK issued a new ruling that effectively endorses Nawrocki’s decision not to swear in some of the judges.

It did so in response to a motion submitted by a group of PiS MPs in February, before the new TK judges had even been chosen. They asked the TK to assess the constitutionality of various elements of the law on electing TK judges, which had been introduced in 2016 when PiS itself was in power.

The TK announced on Tuesday that it had discontinued proceedings on all of the doubts raised by PiS apart from on one issue, relating to the section of the law on the president’s role in receiving the oath of new TK judges.

The TK ruled that this should not be “understood as imposing on the president the obligation to administer the oath”. This oath must be taken in the physical presence of the president, said the TK’s deputy chief justice Bartłomiej Sochański, quoted by the Rzeczpospolita daily.

Speaking later to broadcaster Polsat, Święczkowski said that, “as a rule, the president should administer these oaths”. However, “extraordinary situations may arise in which the oath will not be administered”.

The chief justice also acknowledged that “it is clear that those in power will find an excuse not to implement the ruling”, noting that the government has already refused to implement over 70 TK judgements.

That position was confirmed on Tuesday by justice minister Waldemar Żurek, who called the TK’s decision “a political setup with the participation of doublers” – the latter word being the one the government uses to refer to TK judges illegally appointed under PiS. “So there is no ruling,” said Żurek.

Government spokesman Adam Szłapka likewise rejected the TK’s decision, saying that the constitution “very clearly” states that “TK judges are appointed by parliament…and are obliged to take the oath”, reports broadcaster TVP.

The impasse over the four judges is therefore set to continue, with the TK ignoring the EHCR ruling requiring them to take up their positions and the government ignoring the TK ruling that endorses the president’s right not to swear them in.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has apologised to same-sex couples for the “years of rejection and humiliation” they have experienced due to Poland not legally recognising their relationships.

He pledged that the government would seek “as soon as possible” to implement recent European and Polish court rulings requiring that Poland recognise same-sex marriages conducted in other EU member states.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Warsaw, who is a senior figure in Tusk’s party, separately announced today that his city would begin recognising same-sex marriages of Polish citizens conducted elsewhere in the EU, even before the government takes any action.

Tusk delivered his comments during public remarks ahead of a closed meeting of his cabinet on Tuesday. He said that he wanted to address the recent rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and Polish Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) requiring recognition of foreign same-sex marriages.

The prime minister noted that Poland, which does not recognise any form of same-sex relationships in domestic law, currently “lacks statutory regulations” allowing such recognition.

“We have committed to – and I will personally ensure this – abiding by the rulings as a priority,” declared Tusk. But he added that this must be done in a way that respects “the rule of law and compliance with the law”.

However, the prime minister also said he understands that, beyond the legal issues, this is “a matter of human dignity: the right to happiness, the right to equal treatment by the state”.

“I would like to apologise to all those who, for many, many years, felt rejected and humiliated,” he continued. “For many years, the [Polish] state has failed the test.”

He urged politicians, when considering how to implement the rulings, “to respect the dignity of every human being and to remember that these people live around us, beside us, among us, and deserve the same feelings of respect, dignity and love as any other person”.

Although the CJEU’s ruling was issued last November, and the NSA’s in March this year, the government has still not agreed on the measures needed to implement them. Last month, a group of over 100 NGOs urged it take action.

In January, the digital affairs ministry proposed changes to the civil registry system, which currently only allows male-female marriages to be recognised. Instead, the ministry wants to categorise couples as “first spouse” and “second spouse”. However, that proposal is still being discussed with other government departments.

Moreover, while the digital affairs ministry hoped to make the change via a unilateral government regulation, the interior ministry has indicated that it may require a change to the law, which would necessitate parliamentary and presidential approval.

Tusk’s government does have a parliamentary majority, but his coalition includes some conservative elements who have previously expressed reluctance towards expanding LGBT+ rights.

Even if parliamentary approval is obtained, President Karol Nawrocki, who is aligned with the right-wing opposition, appears certain to exercise his right to veto the legislation, as he has done with over 30 other bills since taking office nine months ago.

In his remarks today, Tusk did not specify the precise path he believes is needed to implement the CJEU and NSA rulings, but he mentioned both government resolutions and “additional legislative solutions in parliament”.

The prime minister also touched on the politically sensitive issue of the adoption of children by same-sex couples. He said that, whatever steps are taken to recognise foreign same-sex marriages, “this is in no way a path to [allowing] adoption”.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, who is a deputy leader of Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO) party, also issued a statement today. It was his city that was ordered by the NSA to recognise the same-sex marriage of a Polish couple who wed in Germany.

Trzaskowski revealed that the NSA’s ruling had formally been submitted to the municipal authorities today. He pledged that “in the coming days”, the city would begin transcribing into its registry same-sex marriage certificates that courts have ordered be recognised, “despite a lack of regulation at the national level”.

Subsequently, Warsaw would also begin transcribing all “same-sex marriages of Polish citizens concluded in the territory of EU countries that have filed or will file such an application with the civil registry office”, added the mayor.

Trzaskowski did not say how exactly this would be achieved, only that it will be “performed within existing technical capabilities”. He also added that “questions remain as to the legal consequences” of transcribing foreign same-sex marriages into the Polish registry.

In this regard, the mayor welcomed Tusk’s announcement that the government would seek to introduce measures allowing transcription to take place uniformly across Poland.

However, he added that he hoped the national authorities would also proceed with a proposed bill intended to grant legal rights to same-sex couples, though without formally allowing them to marry or form a civil partnership.

The bill was agreed by the ruling coalition last October and approved by the cabinet in December, but still has not come up for a vote in parliament. Even if it were approved, however, it again appears likely that Nawrocki would veto it.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.