POLAND: Poland's newly appointed conservative government abolished an office for gender equality yesterday, drawing criticism that it was cool on women's rights and out of step with the European Union.
Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's Law and Justice party, espousing traditionalist Catholic values, took power on Monday after defeating the left in general elections in September.
Mr Marcinkiewicz told a news conference that scrapping the office of gender equality and dismissing the minister in charge of it formed part of his drive to cut costly state administration. "This is an element of making the state leaner," he said. "All issues which are essential for Poland in this regard (gender equality) will be taken care of."
But feminist groups and opposition parties said it showed the conservatives were not interested in protecting women's rights and warned it would set Poland on a collision course with the EU only a year after joining the bloc.
"Law and Justice does not care about the equal status of men and women," said Anna Czerwinska of women's rights group OSKA. "We have complained to the EU and we expect them to react promptly."
Law and Justice, a party rooted in the pro-democracy Solidarity movement which toppled communism in 1989, says it is in favour of traditional family values.
The party has already raised eyebrows in the EU after calling homosexuality unnatural and banning gay parades in Warsaw, whose mayor, Lech Kaczynski, will become Poland's next president.