In Bid to Boost Poll Numbers, Poland’s Ruling Party Targets Trans People

"Obviously someone might disagree with us, and have left-wing views," Kaczynski said on June 25 at one of these meetings in Wloclawek, central Poland. "They may think that each one of us can at one point say that up until now, until this moment, until this hour - it's now about 5:30 - I was a man, and from now on I am a woman."

"The left thinks this is how it should be," Kaczynski went on, an ironic smile etched across his face. "And that it should be respected. My boss at work, let's say, or my colleague should from now on address me using the female form. Yeah, one can have such views, as weird as they are. I would personally diagnose that but…"

In at least two other meetings, the PiS leader made similar comments, which have been widely understood as a calculated attempt to gauge people's reactions to the transgender issue in the run-up to the 2023 parliamentary election.

"I have no doubt this is premeditated," Emilia Wisniewska from the Trans-Fuzja Foundation, which advocates for the rights of transgender people in Poland, tells BIRN. "[Kaczynski] may be testing various themes to see if they will work in the electoral campaign and this is one of them."

"It's not really clear whether Kaczynski is referring to transgender or non-binary people, but I think that the ambiguity is intentional," Wisniewska adds.

Polish leader of the Law and Justice (PiS) ruling party Jaroslaw Kaczynski speaks during the Law and Justice party's congress at the Education and Recreation Center in Marki, near Warsaw, Poland, 04 June 2022. EPA-EFE/Radek Pietruszka Abstract constructs

This is not the first time that the transgender community has been used as a target by a populist right-wing government in the region to rally its...