Polish President Karol Nawrocki exercised his veto power on April 30, blocking a Justice Ministry bill that would have allowed couples without minor children to dissolve their marriages before a civil registrar — bypassing the courts entirely.
The bill, passed by the Sejm on March 13, proposed a two-step administrative process: spouses would first appear jointly at a civil registry office, submit written declarations, wait a minimum of one month, then return to finalize the dissolution. No judicial oversight would be required. The Ministry argued this would ease the burden on courts, which process between 50,000 and 60,000 divorce applications annually — roughly 40% from childless couples.
Nawrocki rejected that reasoning directly. “Marriage is not a simple entry in the register,” he said. “Marriage is one of the foundations of social life. It is the foundation of the family, the foundation of raising children, the foundation of the continuity of the national community.”
The president also challenged the law on demographic grounds. Four out of five children born in Poland are born within marriage. Married couples have a fertility rate of two — the replacement level. Nawrocki noted that creating an easy exit from marriage for childless couples while keeping judicial requirements for parents effectively frames the presence of children as an obstacle to leaving. “That is socially harmful,” he stated.
He further cited Article 18 of Poland’s Constitution, which places marriage — defined as the union of a man and a woman — along with family, motherhood, and parenthood under the explicit protection of the Republic. “Protection does not consist in facilitating separation,” he said. “Protection consists in supporting permanence despite various difficulties.”
The veto returns the bill to the Sejm, where overriding it would require a constitutional majority. The outcome of that vote remains uncertain.
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