A Statement from Rémy Bonny, political scientist and LGBTQI activist from Belgium, on yesterday´s events in Warsaw, Poland, and a call upon the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, to convene an extraordinary session of the European Council.
Yesterday evening, the announcement of a two months prison sentence for a LGBTI-activist led to unseen protests on the streets of Warsaw. Hundreds of LGBTI-activists convened in front of the offices of the Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH – Poland’s biggest LGBTI-organisation).
At least 48 activists were detained yesterday evening, and several were injured, after the police used extraordinary violence to crackdown on the protests. Several activists compare the protests to the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York.
Officially, the prison sentence is because the LGBTI-activist participated in stopping a car of a pro-life, religious organisation Fundacja Pro; the car had a billboard with hateful and homophobic statements that “gays are pedophiles” or that they want to “teach masturbation to children”.
Earlier this week, the LGBTI-activist was also detained for 48 hours after taking a picture with a rainbow flag in front of a statue of Jesus Christ.
There is no doubt that the arrest was grounded by political reasons by the current ultraconservative regime in Poland. Polish president Andrzej Duda was recently re-elected thanks to an aggressive anti-LGBTI campaign. He called ‘LGBTI-ideology more harmful than communism’.
If Europe does not intervene in Poland right now, the EU is going into the same direction as what happened to LGBTI-people during WWII. Over the last months, LGBTI-people have been dehumanised and portrayed as second class citizens by the Polish president.
Now he has set up a religious police to start detaining LGBTI-people. A Europe without values is not worthy to be called a ‘Union’! The EU was once a project of peace.
Sexual and gender minorities are being detained now inside the EU. If Europe does not intervene now, it will dig its own grave.
I offer my help the European Commission, European Council and the European Parliament to find ways to intervene and change the authoritarian direction in Central and Eastern European member states of the EU.
There is no way to deny that the events that took place in Poland yesterday is the prelude of the establishment of a dangerous dictatorship in the middle of the European Union. Given the urgency of the situation, I call upon the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, to convene an extraordinary session of the European Council.
If we don’t act now – it might be too late!
Rémy Bonny
Rémy Bonny is a political scientist and LGBTQI activist from Belgium. He is a specialist in the way the LGBTI-movement’s demands construct international relations – specifically in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
In recent years, Rémy has been conducting research to the interactions between illiberal states like Vladimir Putin’s Russian Federation and the European Union and former Soviet Republics. Therefore, he has been living in Budapest, Brussels, Warsaw and Venice.
As an advocate and researcher in LGBTQI-Politics, Rémy travels around the world to talk to LGBTI-organisations, high-level policy makers and academics about his research and the situation in their countries and in the EU.
His work has been recognised by many international media and institutes. He was one of the speakers privileged to speak during the official 50th commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising in New York City.
Will you help end this ridiculous investigation by emailing Poland’s Prosecutor General?
