This image is for illustrative purposes only and is not directly related to this story. Image source: Rosemary Ketchum
Days after his election, Kraków's new mayor, independent Łukasz Gibała, told Radio Kraków he will withdraw the city government's official patronage of the annual LGBTQ+ Equality March, arguing the event has become too "partisan". It is one of his first policy announcements in office, and it breaks with the supportive stance of recent predecessors.
Gibała won the October 11 runoff with 62.12% against Civic Coalition candidate Monika Piątkowska (37.88%), after taking 36.38% in the September 27 first round. The snap election followed the removal of former mayor Aleksander Miszalski in a May recall referendum. In the interview, Gibała claimed march organisers had grown increasingly aligned with political parties over the past three years, without naming names; he also stressed he had attended equality marches himself in the past and does not regret it, and that his support for same-sex civil partnerships — a position he held as an MP — is unchanged. Withdrawing patronage does not stop the march, which was first held in 2004 and draws thousands of participants each May.
Kraków's Equality March has enjoyed official backing in recent years: former mayor Jacek Majchrowski became its honorary patron in 2021, and Miszalski made history in 2024 as the first sitting mayor to attend, declaring the city should be "a home for everyone". Gibała ran as an independent promising to depoliticise city hall. He also said the city will keep registering same-sex marriages concluded abroad under current rules — 516 such marriages have been registered across Poland, 46 of them in Kraków — while warning this could change if a future government amends the law. Polish domestic law still recognises no form of same-sex union.
Analysts note Gibała is not an anti-LGBTQ+ figure — he backs civil partnerships and has marched himself — and read the move more as an extension of his depoliticisation pledge than an ideological turn. Still, in a country ranked among Europe's worst for LGBTQ+ people, losing the city's official endorsement is seen as a symbolic rollback. With parliamentary elections due in 2027, all sides are reading local results as a barometer of the governing coalition's standing, and Kraków's shift may be magnified into a national signal.
European Editorial Office: Lucas Bakke
Sources: Radio Kraków, Notes from Poland, The Insight International and public reporting (tip: PinkNews)
Reference links:
https://www.europesays.com/poland/30805/
https://ua.news/en/world/novii-mer-krakova-ne-nadavatime-patronat-marshu-rivnosti-notes-from-poland
https://theinsightinternational.com/independent-lukasz-gibala-wins-krakow-mayoral-runoff-beats-tusk-backed-piatkowska-october-11/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Krak%C3%B3w_mayoral_election