A shocking comment was made over the weekend by a prominent Polish politician who blamed young women and their drinking for the country’s low birth rate.
“We’re not going to see any babies if girls, young women, continue to drink like their equals until they’re 25,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski, 73, remarked.
“The fewest children in Poland are in Warsaw, so it’s not only an economic issue, but also a certain attitude of people, especially women.”
Kaczynski is the leader of the ruling Law & Justice party —a right-wing populist, national-conservative party which gained an absolute majority in parliament seven years ago.
On Saturday, Kaczynski made the comment in front of a large crowd of voters in Elk, northeastern Poland — part of a tour he is doing around the country to gain support for his party before the general elections in October 2023.
Center-left opposition lawmaker, Barbara Nowacka went on Twitter to convey her outrage.
“With this raving about “giving in the neck” Kaczyński showed how he knows nothing about women, our plans, dreams and life,” she expressed.
“But he gave himself the right to decide about our lives, dreams and bodies. It is a source of misfortune for young Polish women.”
In October 2020, Nowacka was sprayed with tear gas by a police officer at a protest against a restrictive abortion ruling.
The police officer said he’d mistakenly perceived her as a threat. Nowacka said that she posed no threat to the officers, and called Kaczynski, then-deputy prime minister in charge of security, a “bastard.”
Another female user wrote: “There are no conditions for a child in Poland. Wages are hopeless, there are no housing, and the cost of living is expensive. In order to have a child, you must have the conditions for it to raise it with dignity.”
Earlier his year, Poland’s strict abortion laws were tightened, with the procedure only allowed in cases of rape or incest or when the pregnancy threatens the mother’s life.
Poland saw its steepest population drop last year since World War II, with the fertility rate in 2021 being one of the lowest in the European Union.
According to the government’s agency for the prevention of alcohol-related issues, women drink less than men. Another study published this year revealed that ten percent of Poles declared that they drank alcohol every day, with 15 percent of men declaring they drank everyday, while just 5 per cent of women drank everyday.