Former EU president Donald Tusk blasts Poland’s homophobic Christian leaders: ‘Jesus never stood with oppressive governments’
Donald Tusk at the European Council headquarters in Brussels. (Aris Oikonomou/AFP/Getty)
Donald Tusk had some stern words for the Polish prime minister after he condemned the so-called “desecration” of a Jesus statue with a Pride flag.
The statue of Jesus in Warsaw was one of three monuments decorated with rainbow Pride flags by the radical queer feminist group named Stop Bzdurom (Stop Bulls**t), causing outrage among the country’s right-wing leaders.
Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki railed that the figure of Christ had been “desecrated” by an “act of vandalism”, adding that it would “lead to nothing good, and have one purpose – to divide society even more”.
As Morawiecki’s words provoked further outrage against the LGBT+ activists, Polish former European Council president Donald Tusk stepped in to remind his countrymen that their words weren’t exactly Christlike.
“As the head of European Christian Democrats, I would like to remind you that Jesus has always been on the side of the weaker and the harmed, never on the side of the oppressive governments,” Tusk tweeted.
Although he didn’t name Morawiecki or include any context about the statue, many of Poland’s anti-LGBT+ right-wing interpreted it as a clear jab at them.
The statue of Jesus in Warsaw was given a rainbow flag and an anarchist bandana. (Robert Kuszyński OKO.press)
Krzysztof Sobolewski, an MP from the homophobic leading party PiS, responded by questioning Tusk’s claim to be a Christian. He tweeted an excerpt of an interview in which Tusk described himself as “the doubting type” and no longer a practicing Catholic.
This was apparently enough to dispute the suggestion that Jesus would support the weak and marginalised of society.
Meanwhile Jacek Karnowski, the editor-in-chief of Polish weekly Sieci, insisted that it is actually the ordinary, traditional families who are the weakest in society, and Jesus would surely side with this “terrified majority”.
“Who is weaker? ” he asked, “The unpunished, increasingly aggressive, well-paid LGBT activists, who are internationally protected by the media and politics?
“Or Polish families, often ordinary ones, simple ones, who try to desperately defend their right to raise their children in accordance with their values and what they consider to be moral?”
The alarming rise in homophobic hate crimes in Poland, to which authorities often turn a blind eye, would suggest otherwise.
Polish courts regularly issue rulings that demonise the LGBT+ community and sanction further marginalisation; vast swathes of the country have been declared ‘LGBT-free’ zones as towns pledge to refrain from acts of tolerance; and just a few weeks ago Poland’s homophobic president Andrzej Duda cemented his power with a re-election campaign based on anti-LGBT+ hatred.
Yet the sight of Christ holding a rainbow flag is supposedly an “ideological assault” upon oppressed families.
