The leader of Poland’s leading political party has said that unless he and his party continue to oppose “culturally alien novelties” from the west, Poland could end up like Ireland. During an interview with the right-wing conservative magazine, Sieci, Jarosław Kaczyński described Ireland as a “Catholic desert with LGBT ideology out of control”.

Kaczyński was responding to comments made by the minister for justice and leader of Solidarity Poland, Zbigniew Ziobro, who claim that PiS are not doing enough to fight ‘LGBT ideology’.

Kaczyński said that he agrees with Solidarity Poland’s tactics in terms of defending traditional values saying that failure to protect these values could see Poland ending up like Ireland.

The PiS leader claims that until recently, Ireland was a country so Catholic that it made Poland look like a Pagan land, but that it is now a “Catholic desert with LGBT ideology totally out of control”.

Jarosław Kaczyński said that traditional values must be upheld firstly through persuasion and rejection of political correctness but wouldn’t rule out legal measures if necessary.

He went on to detail that their “first line of defence” is in schools saying the state must favour traditional values with a focus on the difference between right and wrong in the school curriculum.

When asked if he was aware of the EU’s stance on anti-LGBT+ policies, he said PiS was only trying to defend traditional values and would have nothing to do with any totalitarian ideology.

Over the past two years, the rise in homophobic discourse in Poland has resulted in over a third of the country declaring itself an ‘LGBT+ free zone’.

In July, the European Commission announced that they will freeze funding for those ‘LGBT+ free zones’.

At the end of August, Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne, addressed the ongoing discrimination against the LGBT+ community in Poland and reaffirmed Ireland’s commitment to LGBT+ rights.