The President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, exercised the right of veto against laws that would have allowed LGBTQ+ couples to enter into cohabitation contracts.

The Polish President Karol Nawrocki vetoed on Friday two laws that would have allowed same-sex couples to enter into 'cohabitation contracts', arguing that they would affect the special status of marriage, defined in the Polish Constitution as the union between a woman and a man.

Nawrocki, an ally of the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS), stated that the proposed regulations would have created a new formal institution in family legislation, with rights similar to marriage. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who promised reforms in the field of sexual minority rights, is facing divergences within the government coalition.

The presidential veto complicates efforts to improve LGBTQ+ rights in Poland, one of the few EU countries that limits these rights. Although Poland recognizes same-sex marriages from other EU states, the government's representative for equality issues, Katarzyna Kotula, accused the president of turning his back on the two million people in informal relationships.