Members of the public listen to the leader of Civic Coalition Party, Donald Tusk, delivering a speech during the Women for Elections campaign rally in Lodz, Poland on Tuesday. Photograph: Omar Marques/Getty ImagesConsidered by many to be Europe’s most important election this year, the vote will decide the direction – liberal or illiberal democracy – of this country of 38 million, and its place in the EU.
Her words cause a crackle in the air of the repurposed Lodz power station, just as anger over the rollback of women’s rights overseen by Kaczynski could swing an already charged election campaign.. But each month brings fresh cases of pregnant women dying from complications in hospitals, as uncertain medical teams look on, afraid to intervene.
“The Law and Justice government puts women on a pedestal”; “Women don’t need as much education as a man, it’s just for entertainment”; “the purpose of family is procreation, even wild boars know it”; “women shouldn’t have the vote”. “Women feel less confident than men when making electoral decisions,” noted the report by the Stefan Batory Foundation. “Women are more interested in topics such as cost of living, women’s rights and health.”
“You women have been victimised, attacked and harassed by the highest forces of this state,” he says. “It cannot be that we have to fight now for women’s fundamental rights, it can’t be this way any more.”