Poland, again

On June 2nd, Poland woke up to the news that its new president is a man previously accused of pimping, known for his ties to violent circles and public contempt for minorities. A candidate backed by the Law and Justice party (PiS), who won by the narrowest of margins. And yet – that was enough.

This result didn’t come out of nowhere. It reflects something deeper and darker: a Europe in which authoritarianism – even when pushed back – returns. Stronger. More brutal. More self-assured. We saw it in the United States. We saw it in Slovakia. And now we see it in Poland. The liberal-democratic breakthrough of 2023, celebrated across Europe, collapsed under the weight of its own hesitant strategy and the inability to communicate with those to whom it had promised hope. We had a narrow window – and the politicians failed to use it.

For me, this story is deeply personal. When Europe heard about the so-called “LGBT-free zones,” it was my photos with the yellow signs that showed the world what was really happening in Poland. Those images touched people’s hearts and pushed politicians to act. I became an enemy of the state. I faced politically motivated trials, smear campaigns, and hate. Like others who chose to speak out during PiS’s authoritarian rule, I learned the price of resistance. And yet, silence was never an option.

On October 15th, 2023, I wrote on Twitter: “I am gay, I am Polish and I am proud… The nightmare ends.” But I was wrong. Not in my hope – but in underestimating how quickly that hope could be betrayed. The extraordinary opportunity we were given – to rebuild institutions, restore dignity, and enshrine equality – was squandered through poor strategy, communication failures, and an inability to speak honestly about why promises were stalled. Now, the most vulnerable – women, minorities, the young – will pay the price.

Nawrocki’s victory means a complete blockade of all progressive projects proposed by the current government. It likely spells the collapse of a fragile coalition and the return of PiS – this time not only fueled by toxic nationalism, but by a thirst for revenge.

In the first weeks of his campaign, Nawrocki fed a piece of paper labeled “gender-queer” into a shredder. It symbolized his contempt for minorities – and will likely become the defining image of his presidency. PiS ran an extremely aggressive campaign not only against political opponents, but also against civil society organizations that worked to mobilize voters. This is a warning of what’s to come: a full package of repression, copied straight from Orbán’s Hungary.

This result should be a wake-up call. The democratic camp can no longer govern as if it has all the time in the world. It doesn’t. It must act as if each term could be the last – because it might be. The next opportunity may not come in 2030. It may never come. What we need now are not “safe reforms” or “polite conversations,” but bold, unapologetic acts of justice and transformation.

I remember what the worst years of PiS rule looked like. The arrests. The despair. The rise in suicides among LGBT teens. I remember when the previous president said the infamous words: “They are not people, they are ideology,” and when other PiS politicians echoed him, saying “Poland will be more beautiful without LGBT.” I remember showing the president photos of young LGBT people who had taken their lives – and seeing nothing in his eyes. Just emptiness.

I’m not speaking here as a politician or an activist. I’m speaking as someone who lived through it: democracy without courage is not democracy. It’s performance. And those who suffer in silence – in small towns, in conservative homes, in classrooms and clinics – they are watching us now. This is a signal to the liberal elites: the era of empty centrism disguised by PR consultants is over.

We still have a choice. Maybe not in this presidency, but in how we resist, how we organize, and how we rebuild what can still be saved. The future does not belong to those who wait. The future belongs to those who act – even when everything favors the other side.

Let me end with words that guide me today:
“This is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” — Ernest Hemingway.