In an effort to boost support for his party ahead of the legislative elections next year, Kaczynski, the head of the populist ruling party Law and Justice, made his comment over the weekend.
The leader of Poland’s ruling party incited outrage sparked the nation and a flurry of jokes by asserting that young women’s excessive drinking contributed to the nation’s low birthrate.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a 73-year-old lifelong bachelor, was accused of being out of touch by opposition lawmakers and several other detractors. Additionally, they contend that Kaczynski, Poland’s most influential leader since 2015, has some of the blame for the low birthrate in the 38 million-person country, in central Europe.
Kaczynski comments
Critics specifically draw attention to abortion regulations that have deterred some women from trying to conceive. Others draw attention to the challenges, young people have in raising families as a result of increased prices in a nation where inflation is currently close to 18%.
In an effort to boost support for his party ahead of the legislative elections next year, Kaczynski, the head of the populist ruling party Law and Justice, made his comment over the weekend.
On Saturday, Kaczynski discussed the demographic issue of “far too few children” being born in front of an audience.”And in this case, it is occasionally essential to utter a few bitter words in an open manner.
There won’t be any children, for instance, if girls and young women continue to consume the same amount of alcohol as their friends until the age of 25, according to Kaczynski.
The average guy, he continued, “needs to drink excessively for 20 years to develop alcoholism, and a woman only two.”
Kaczynski declared, “I am a serious advocate of women’s equality, but I do not support women and men pretending to be one another since this is something entirely different”.
The comment sparked some predictable jokes about how alcohol might genuinely help with conception, as well as a lot of serious criticism.
A topic to Debate or an insult to Polish women
An opposition member, Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz, reacted angrily when a government official claimed on a TV talk show that there should be a debate over alcohol’s impact on fertility: “This is not a debate, it is insulting Polish women.”Before 2020, the traditionally Roman Catholic nation already had one of Europe’s strictest abortion laws, with abortions being permitted in a very small number of circumstances.
After that a new judgement said that women may no longer choose to end their pregnancies if the foetus had severe defects and was not likely to survive after birth.Aleksandra Gajewska, a member of the opposition, questioned if Kaczynski was speaking with a political agenda or not.
She questioned, “Is Jaroslaw Kaczynski a cold, cruel cynic or is he psychologically ill?”An honest politician, if he understands such a thing, must communicate about it, Kaczynski argued in his defence.According to estimates from the World Bank, the number of births per woman in Poland fell precipitously from 3 in 1960 to 1.2 in 2003.
After 2003, it started to rise again considerably, and after Kaczynski’s government came to power in 2015 and provided a monthly cash bonus of 500 zlotys per kid in an effort to promote larger families, it saw an increase.
However, Polish government figures show that the birthrate is once again decreasing, and Kaczynski acknowledged last month that the initiative isn’t having the desired effect.
According to Polish state statistics, the birthrate was 1.32 in 2021, which is low but still greater than various other European nations.
Read more: Poland reveals the grave dangers that women face when abortion is illegal
