Janusz Palikot, a wealthy former vodka tycoon, has stormed into parliament with 10 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election at the head of a motley crew of political novices that includes Poland’s first transsexual lawmaker, Anna Grodzka.
The ultra-liberal party wants to repeal restrictions on individual freedoms, and end the Catholic Church’s privileges.
Palikot explained, “In Poland, you go to jail for insulting the President, for a word, for insulting religious feelings, insulting an official.”
“You go to jail for drinking beer and then walking with your bike. You go to jail for smoking a joint. For abortion. This is a nihilist policy which hurts people.”
Palikot’s Movement, as the party is known, has tapped into a rich vein of disaffection, especially among young people, by supporting gay rights, abortion, public funding for in vitro fertilization and legalisation of soft drugs.
Palikot has scandalized conservative Poles with stunts such as waving a dildo and a toy gun at a news conference to publicize a rape case against a policeman, and with his outspoken call for an end to the Catholic Church’s privileges.
The church is revered by many Poles for its role in helping to end decades of communist rule and it has carved out a powerful role in democratic Poland.
But Palikot wants to end tax exemptions for priests and public funding for religion classes in state schools.
Andrzej Rychard of the Polish Academy of Science, commenting on Palikot’s breakthrough said, “I am quite sure that the less the church engages in politics the better for itself … That said, the new mood for more secular, liberal trends in society is not represented in all social strata and regions of Poland that are more conservative.”
Source: Reuters
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