New Polish government attacks freedom of speech to protect immigrants and homosexuals

[D. Ray]

Warsaw, Poland – Under the auspices of cracking down on so-called “hate
rhetoric,” Poland’s new liberal-left government is seeking restrictions on
free speech. The move has raised concern with the country’s traditional
right wing, with members of the Konfederacja (Confederation) party voicing
a need to safeguard public discourse.

According to a new report by Remix, Poland’s Confederation party has
denounced a plan by the ruling progressive coalition to penalize what it
calls “hate speech.” While the government says their proposed restrictions
seek to defend immigrants, religious minorities, and homosexuals,
Confederation asserts that limiting dissent in this manner would only serve
to “destroy free speech” amongst Poles.

Poland’s current left-wing coalition took control of parliament in October
after it ousted the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) after eight
years of power.

MP Karina Bosak defiantly voiced the party’s concerns, stating that
regulations will only curb free expression and debate in Poland and
ultimately criminalize conservative and religious viewpoints.

“The ruling coalition, as part of its coalition agreement, has announced
that they want to penalize so-called hate speech,” said Confederation MP
Karina Bosak. “The current left-wing Deputy Minister of Justice Krzysztof
Śmiszek, from the New Left, has stated that his department is currently
working on introducing these regulations, which limit freedom of speech and
public debate in Poland.”

“We, as the Confederation, strongly oppose this. The direct consequence of
criminalizing certain words will, in fact, be the criminalization of
conservative, religious, Christian views,” she continued.

Bosak further stressed the need for free and open public debate, rejecting
the notion of any topics being off-limits: “(Confederation) does not want
there to be any sacred cows in Poland, that there are social groups whose
ideas cannot be criticized at all in a healthy, free public debate.”

"We will defend Poles against such regulations and proposals that threaten
freedom of speech and their values," she declared.

Party member Dobromir Sośnierz echoed Bosak's sentiments. He argued that
what is deemed hate speech by the left could simply refer to speech
disliked by the ruling coalition and Minister Śmiszek, rather than speech
expressing a genuine hatred towards someone.

“This government is starting not by expanding our freedoms but by limiting
them again, which will also lead to clogging up the courts,” Sośnierz said.

Deputy Minister Śmiszek—an open homosexual—recently drew criticism for
legislative changes that would find those who practice "hate speech"
against homosexuals to be criminally liable. In a public statement, the
far-left lawmaker expressed a desire to ban so-called "homophobic" and
"discriminatory" statements in the public sphere.

“The time has come to ban disgusting, homophobic, discriminatory statements
in the public sphere,” he said.

Minister Śmiszek's apparent willingness to subvert the largely Christian
and conservative inclinations of the Polish people has surfaced in recent
years. In May of 2023, the gay MP introduced legislation that would remove
the need for parental consent to perform sex change operations on minors.

In October, Śmiszek made headlines for a symbolic "marriage" to Robert
Biedroń, leader of the Spring party and his partner of 23 years. The two
men reportedly engaged in the political stunt to outrageously call for
so-called "marriage equality" in Poland, a country that in 2023, was ranked
as "one of the worst" places to live for European homosexuals.

“There were nerves and emotions, but there was also anger that in 2023, in
the middle of Europe, two people who love each other are not recognised by
their country," said Śmiszek of his marriage ceremony. "...That instead of
respect and dignity, hundreds of thousands of people in Poland receive
contempt.”

The latest assault against free expression in Poland comes amid a series of
free-speech-related outrages erupting across the Western world. In the
United Kingdom, restrictive, heavy-handed hate speech legislation was used
to convict multiple pro-White, nationalist activists, including Sam Melia
of Patriotic Alternative. According to prosecutors, Melia is alleged to
have "stirred racial hatred" for a series of stickers that merely raised
awareness of the consequences of unchecked immigration into the UK.

In the United States, a wave of anti-Zionist sentiment inside college
campuses triggered calls for restricting freedom of speech in America. The
demands—stemming from college professors and others seeking to protect
American Jews from co-called "antisemitism"—come amid an increasingly
bloody, Israel-imposed war on Gaza, which has levied accusations of
genocide and resulted in over 22,000 Palestinians dead.

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