POLAND:Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski criticised his deputy Roman Giertych yesterday over comments about homosexuals and abortion that prompted a rebuke from the European Commission.
Mr Giertych, leader of the far-right League of Polish Families, a junior partner in the conservative-led cabinet, infuriated Mr Kaczynski last week when he called on the EU to stop "homosexual propaganda" and completely ban abortion.
"Giertych went too far. His remarks are not the position of our government," the prime minister said. "I am for the anti-abortion law we have at present."
Mr Giertych made his comments at a meeting of EU education ministers in Heidelberg.
The commission expressed regret at the comments by Mr Giertych, who is Poland's education minister, restating its opposition to discrimination against minorities.
Mr Kaczynski said the row would not mean an end of the ruling coalition but said he would summon the education minister for talks about it later this week.
Mr Giertych's ultra-Catholic party, which opposed Poland's EU entry in 2004, has been singled out by the European Parliament as a culprit behind a "rise in racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic and homophobic intolerance" in the country.
Abortion is a sensitive topic in Poland and Mr Kaczynski is facing pressure from coalition partners and his own party to harden his stance on the issue.
The country has one of the toughest laws on abortion, allowing pregnancy to be terminated only when it threatens the life or health of the mother, when the baby is likely to be permanently disabled or when pregnancy is the result of a crime, such as rape or incest.
The league wants to ban abortion even in these rare cases and an ultra-conservative wing of the ruling Law and Justice party also wants to change the constitution to make a liberalisation of the abortion law impossible in the future.
But the prime minister and his twin brother, Lech, who is Poland's president, believe the law should not be changed. "This is a question about how far a democratic country can go," he said. "I believe the state cannot force a woman to give birth to a child after a rape."
Surveys suggest about 20 per cent of Poles would back a stricter abortion law.