Female Members of Parliament in Poland colour coordinated as the rainbow as a form of protest against the newly elected President Andrzej Duda, during his swearing-in ceremony. This is because he had actively campaigned against the LGBTQ community during his election campaign. He belongs to the Nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS). Duda argued in his campaigns that the queer community are not ‘people’ and that their ideologies were ‘destructive’.
He was re-elected as Poland’s President for a second five-year term, winning 51% of the vote in a tight battle with Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski.
Left-wing members came to express their opposition to his homophobic presidency. It is to be noted that some of them boycotted the ceremony while the others had dressed up to colour co-ordinate as the rainbow, and wore rainbow masks. The rainbow denotes the PRIDE flag that represents the LGBTQ community. Left MP Anna Maria Zukowska told Reuters that the constitution granted equality for everyone and they wanted to remind the President of it.
Poland’s Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, described it on Facebook as “an act of vandalism” that was aimed at dividing society. The country has already been facing backlash from the EU over declaring several cities as ‘LGBT-free’.
