“It’s both an ideological and a political project to form a transnational alliance of right-wing populist and extreme-right parties with the help of ultraconservative civil society groups and religious institutions,” Korolczuk told BIRN. We want to promote the family within the EU – this is for us one of the basic goals of our social policy at the EU level,” he told reporters.Įlzbieta Korolczuk, a sociologist and gender issues expert working at the Sodertorn and Warsaw Universities, believes that Poland’s social and religious conservatives are attempting to swap “gender mainstreaming” – a strategy to achieve equality between women and men though policies, programs and projects – with “family mainstreaming”, which in the hands of illiberal governments becomes an alternative to women’s rights and a tool for promoting ‘traditional’ values. “We put enormous effort into further ensuring that the basic needs of families are met – in the budget, but also in regulations and policies, national and European. the ‘traditional’ family of a married heterosexual couple and their children? Will the Declaration lead to other joint actions by the V4 to restrict women’s and LGBT rights, as Poland may well intend? And what will be the long-term impact of such coordination on wider EU policymaking in the areas of reproductive and gay rights? Family mainstreamingĭuring the May 13 launch event in Warsaw, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spelled out at least his government’s intentions on the further use of this initiative.
While the focus of the communication around the launch of the Declaration Pro Familia has been on fairly uncontroversial government actions, the V4 countries’ plan to improve exclusively the economic situation of heterosexual families, primarily those with multiple children, and the fact the text is the initiative of Poland’s nationalist-populist government, which has been carrying out a concerted campaign against women’s and LGBT rights, raises many questions.ĭo all V4 countries that signed the Declaration Pro Familia share the current Polish government’s understanding of family, i.e.