Polish President Karol Nawrocki has vetoed legislation that would have granted unmarried couples, including same-sex couples, a limited set of legal rights, in turn preventing what would have been Poland‘s first legal recognition of same-sex relationships.

The bill, which was backed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing coalition and approved by both houses of parliament in May and June, would have allowed couples to register a legal agreement giving them rights including joint property ownership, access to a partner’s medical information, inheritance tax exemptions, joint tax settlement, and the ability to make burial decisions.

It stopped just short of introducing marriage equality or full civil partnerships, as reported by Notes From Poland.

Explaining his Friday (17 July) decision, Nawrocki argued the legislation would create “civil partnerships through the back door” and undermine Poland’s constitutional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

He also claimed the proposal would give couples some of the benefits of marriage without the same legal obligations, adding that marriage “cannot become one of many equally valid options offered by the state.”

The decision drew immediate criticism from government officials. Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the veto “an expression of contempt toward people and their right to happiness and a normal life,” while Equality Minister Katarzyna Kotula accused the president of turning his back on the roughly two million Poles living in unmarried relationships.

Kotula vowed to continue pursuing LGBTQ+ equality, noting that Poland has already begun recognising same-sex marriages performed elsewhere in the European Union following rulings from European courts earlier this year.

Despite this latest bill’s failure, public opinion has shifted in recent years, with polling by the state research agency CBOS showing that a majority (62%) of Poles now support legal recognition for same-sex couples through civil partnerships.