Gay pride marches are condemned by senior Polish politician, while archbishop warns of a 'rainbow plague' ahead of elections in the country as LGBT rights are deemed 'dangerous'

  • Law and Justice party (PiS) say homosexuality is a threat to Catholic values
  • Called for law to be enforced to regulate gay pride marches and parades
  • Analysts predict PiS will win next election and get another four years
  • PiS stand accused of instigating anti-LGBT attacks after parades attacked 

By Ryan Fahey For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

The leader of Poland's conservative ruling party has called on the country to resist the 'travelling theatre' of gay pride marches.

'We are the ones who are harmed by this, it must be unmasked and discarded,' Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said at a party campaign on Sunday. 

He added that the marches were a 'hard offensive showing up in different cities to provoke and then cry.' 

Kaczynski also said he was 'grateful' to a Polish archbishop who said this month that Poland was under siege from a 'rainbow plague' of gay rights campaigners whom he compared to Poland's former Communist rulers. 

PiS has depicted LGBT rights as a dangerous Western idea that undermine traditional Catholic values. 

The law must be fully enforced to 'regulate these matters,' he added, without elaborating. 

Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski (pictured) can be seen speaking at a party meeting on Sunday. He told attendants that 'LGBT rights' were a dangerous Western invention that sought to erode traditional Catholic values. Critics accuse them of stoking up anti-LGBT violence after protesters were attacked at a recent 'gay pride' march in Poland's northeastern city of Bialystok. The country is becoming divided over the ever-increasing visibility of LGBT issues with the government and powerful Catholic church denouncing homosexuality as a threat to society. Kaczynski says PiS is the only party to protect the Catholic church

Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski (pictured) can be seen speaking at a party meeting on Sunday. He told attendants that 'LGBT rights' were a dangerous Western invention that sought to erode traditional Catholic values. Critics accuse them of stoking up anti-LGBT violence after protesters were attacked at a recent 'gay pride' march in Poland's northeastern city of Bialystok. The country is becoming divided over the ever-increasing visibility of LGBT issues with the government and powerful Catholic church denouncing homosexuality as a threat to society. Kaczynski says PiS is the only party to protect the Catholic church

Only PiS can defend the Catholic Church and ward off threats to the traditional family coming from the West, he said.

'(We must) live in freedom, and not be subject to all that is happening to the west of our borders... where freedom is being eliminated,' Kaczynski added.

Political analysts say PiS' criticism of LGBT rights could be a strategy to rally its conservative rural base for the election. It is leading in opinion polls and is expected to win a fresh four-year mandate.

A participant at the first gay pride march in Plock, central Poland, can be seen carrying a picture of the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo around her and the baby Jesus. Far-right opponents disrupted the march on August 10, harassing people in attendance. In May, police detained a woman suspected of 'desecrating' images of the Virgin Mary

A participant at the first gay pride march in Plock, central Poland, can be seen carrying a picture of the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo around her and the baby Jesus. Far-right opponents disrupted the march on August 10, harassing people in attendance. In May, police detained a woman suspected of 'desecrating' images of the Virgin Mary

Critics say PiS has instigated violence towards the gay community in recent weeks as it has continued to criticise what it calls 'LGBT ideology.'

A 'gay pride' march in the northeastern city of Bialystok was marred by violence in July as counter-protesters chased down, attacked and yelled at participants.

Police provided heavy protection to a similar march this month in the central city of Plock.

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