Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the ruling party, criticized through the opposition for his “absurd” comments
Outrage piled up in Poland on Monday after ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński claimed that binge drinking among young women is to blame for the EU country’s low birth rate.
Opposition politicians, female celebrities and others have denounced the 73-year-old as out of touch and patriarchal, downplaying his comments as nonsense.
Kaczyński made questionable statements over the weekend.
“If we see the scenario continue, where, until the age of 25, young people drink as much as men their age, then there will be no boys,” Kaczyński said Saturday.
“A man, for an alcoholic, will have to drink heavily for 20 years on average. . . while a woman only has two. “
The leader of the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, who has no children, said his data comes from a doctor who “managed to cure a third of his alcoholic patients who are still women. “
Kaczyński added that he was not in favor of women having children at a young age because “a woman has to mature to be a mother. “
“But, if you pull the bottle until you’re 25, I’m joking around a little bit here, then it doesn’t bode well” for the birth rate, he said.
Leftist Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus called the comments “rubbish” and called Kaczynski a “patriarchal old man. “
“Of course, we can laugh about it, make memes about it, but it’s a serious and tragic matter,” he told reporters on Monday.
Katarzyna Lubnauer, a lawmaker from the Liberal Civic Coalition (KO), Kaczyński “out of touch” and said her comments were “absurd and insulting to women. “
Anna, the wife of Polish football star Robert Lewandowski, also took to Instagram saying: “ENOUGH. It makes me angry when I see politicians unfairly accusing women of acknowledging the real problem. “
Critics argued that Polish women were reluctant to have children for monetary reasons, as well as concerns about abortion restrictions imposed by PiS.
“Poland, the PiS government is anti-family and anti-woman,” Scheuring-Wielgus said.
Official statistics put the birth rate at just over 1. 3 young people per woman, below the EU average and replacement level.