The chairman of the ruling Law and Justice party Jarosław Kaczyński has been reprimanded by the Deputies' Ethics Committee for his comment blaming Poland's low birth rate on "boozing" women. The committee chairperson MP Monika Falej of the Left party said Kaczyński had put the Sejm's reputation at risk.
A request that Kaczyński be reprimanded for his words was filed by the Left MP Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus.
At a meeting with voters in Ełk on Saturday (November 5) PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński said that Poland's low birth rate was a result of abuse of alcohol among women. On the one hand, he admitted he was not a supporter of "very early motherhood", as "a woman needs to mature to become a mother", but on the other, he said: "But if she is boozing until she's 25, then - maybe I'm joking a bit - it's not exactly the best of forecasts in that regard".
He continued this topic also on Sunday, but this time in Olsztyn. He argued that "young women are competing with men when it comes to alcohol consumption". "This is objectively harmful, and an honest politician who knows this, and I have it on good authority, should be saying it because, I repeat, it's harmful," Kaczyński said. In his view, "some biological factors make women much less resilient to alcohol than men and there's nothing you can do about it". "But it doesn't mean I encourage men to drink excessively," he added.
The Deputies' Ethics Committee chairperson Monika Falej said that Kaczyński "puts the Sejm's reputation at risk". "The person who has law and justice on his lips is makes fun of women, makes fun of people struggling with alcoholism," she added.
Falej added that the PiS chairman had also showed his disregard for the lower house of parliament by not appearing before the committee and not giving any statement. "Such is MP Jarosław Kaczyński's actual approach towards Polish men and women, and to upholding the Polish law," she said.
At a voter rally in Wadowice in mid-November, Kaczyński followed up on his Ełk speech. "When I said that young women drink as much as their male peers, I actually didn't want to offend anyone. I only wanted to tell the truth about a certain harmful phenomenon. Male and female organisms react differently to alcohol - men are much more resilient," PiS chairman said. "I'm for 100-percent equality of women and men in all aspects of life, but that does not mean that women are to pretend they are men, and men women," he added.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP