Kraków’s new mayor to become first to attend city’s LGBT parade

In one of his first decisions after taking office, the newly elected mayor of Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city, has announced that he will attend the city’s annual LGBT Equality March next week, something his long-serving predecessor never did. He will also hang a rainbow flag at city hall.

“I want to build a sensitive and tolerant Kraków, a home for everyone and open for everyone,” wrote Aleksander Miszalski in a letter to organisers of the parade, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. “Diversity is our strength.”

Miszalski was sworn into office on Tuesday this week after being elected last month. He hails from the centrist Civic Coalition (KO) group of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who came to power in December last year promising to strengthen LGBT rights.

#Krakow #nowy #prezydent #MarszRówności pod #patronat.em Aleksandra Miszalskiego!

🏳️‍🌈 Nowy prezydent zapowiedział również udział w Marszu oraz zapowiedział wywieszenie Tęczowej Flagi na magistracie.@OlekMiszalski @krakow_plhttps://t.co/4wVOEzAGV2 pic.twitter.com/V8148WBIfe

— Kraków (@krakow_pl) May 8, 2024

Miszalski’s predecessor, the independent Jacek Majchrowski, who ruled the city from 2002 until this year, became an honourary patron of the Equality March in 2021. However, he never attended the event.

In his letter to the organisers, Miszalski said that he wanted to be the first mayor to do so. “If you allow me, it will be a great pleasure to take part in this year’s edition of the march.”

The mayor’s office also announced that an LGBT rainbow flag would hang on city hall on the day of the march.

A record 12,000 people are estimated to have attended today’s LGBT Equality March in Kraków under the slogan „against exclusion and discrimination”.

The annual event, which was first organised in 2004, is held under the patronage of the city’s mayor https://t.co/th8TDDOP0u pic.twitter.com/q3J3VkKIBt

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 20, 2023

In 2021, when serving as a member of parliament representing Kraków, Miszalski condemned the decision of the Małopolska province, in which Kraków is located, to adopt a resolution declaring “opposition to the introduction of LGBT ideology”.

Later that year, the province withdrew the resolution amid the threat of losing EU funds, as did a number of other Polish local authorities that had passed similar anti-LGBT declarations.

Many of those resolutions were proposed and approved by politicians from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which ruled Poland from 2015 until the end of last year.

PiS led a vociferous campaign against “LGBT ideology”, as a result of which Poland has been ranked for the last four years as the worst country in the EU for LGBT people according to the annual Rainbow Europe index released by ILGA-Europe, a Brussels-based NGO.

Poland remains the EU’s worst country for LGBT people, according to the annual Rainbow Europe ranking https://t.co/j83yAOtrcT

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 11, 2023

However, the new ruling coalition that came to power in December has pledged to improve LGBT rights, including by introducing legal recognition for same-sex couples and making anti-LGBT hate speech a crime.

Under the rule of former mayor Majchrowski, Kraków itself – in contrast to the surrounding province – sought to become more LGBT-friendly. In 2021, for example, it introduced a programme of support for LGBT youth.

The mayors of a number of other large Polish cities, such as Wrocław and Poznań, have also lent their official patronage to local LGBT marches. Few, however, have attended them, with Warsaw’s mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and Gdańsk’s Aleksandra Dulkiewicz among the exceptions.

Some smaller towns also now have annual LGBT parades. In 2022, Milicz, with a population of just over 11,000, became the smallest place in Poland to host one.

Figures from each of the three main groups that make up Poland’s new ruling coalition, including a government minister, have outlined plans to introduce same-sex unions

However, one of them has ruled out the idea of also allowing same-sex couples to marry https://t.co/cxBsVqy8Lk

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 18, 2023

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Main image credit: Jakub Wlodek / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.