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WARSAW — Poland’s President Andrzej Duda is usually quick to congratulate any Polish athletic success, but he’s being uncharacteristically quiet after women rowers won the country’s first medal of the Tokyo Olympic Games, a silver, on Wednesday.
That’s leading to questions in the Polish media over whether his reticence is tied to one of the four rowers, Katarzyna Zillmann, coming out as a lesbian.
During an emotional interview for state-controlled TVP television on Wednesday, Zillmann sent thanks to her girlfriend.
Duda unleashed a campaign against what he called “LGBT ideology” during last year’s election campaign in an effort to appeal to traditionalist voters.
The president’s press office said Thursday that Duda might congratulate all medalists after the Olympics are over.
That’s a contrast to his usual enthusiasm to champion Polish sports accomplishments. The Twitter feed of Duda’s office has a pinned tweet about “keeping fingers crossed” for the Polish Olympians, dated July 23. The presidential office’s website has a story about Duda’s supporting Polish athletes, also published last week.
Although members of the ruling right-wing coalition led by the nationalist Law and Justice party have engaged in verbal attacks against LGBTQ+ people, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki did congratulate Poland’s “fabulous” rowers in a Facebook post a day after their victory.
Poland is one of the EU’s least gay-tolerant countries, according to this year’s “Rainbow Europe” ranking by ILGA-Europe, an LGBT rights NGO based in Brussels.
Warsaw has tangled with the EU over a series of resolutions by local governments declaring themselves “LGBT ideology-free zones,” which has imperiled some forms of EU financing. The European Commission initiated legal proceedings earlier this month against Poland over its “lack of cooperation” on a request for more detailed information about the resolutions.
The European Parliament earlier this year declared the whole EU to be an “LGBTIQ Freedom Zone.”
