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Polish Leader Vows to Defend Traditional Values in Election Year

Polish Leader Vows to Defend Traditional Values in Election Year

(Bloomberg) -- Polish ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski pledged to protect traditional family values and fight poverty in a bid to consolidate his power ahead of key elections this year.

The Law & Justice party, which will field candidates for the European Parliament in May and a parliamentary ballot in the autumn, has argued the ex-communist country needs to pull away from the European Union’s liberal, multi-cultural values and return the nation of 38 million to its Christian roots. Last month, the government unveiled plans to boost subsidies for families and spending on pensions worth as much as 40 billion zloty ($10.5 billion).

Kaczynski promised to fend off attacks on families and children amid campaigns to promote sex education classes at a young age, which is “unbelievable,” he said on Saturday to Law & Justice’s congress in Rzeszow, southeastern Poland. “It’s aimed at undermining a natural identity of boys and girls.”

The party also vowed to fight for the interests of farmers and equal treatment of Polish companies in the EU’s internal market, as well as defense of the bloc’s external borders.

To contact the reporter on this story: Piotr Bujnicki in Warsaw at pbujnicki@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Rose at rrose10@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Jones Hayden

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