Polish Sejm falls 27 votes short of overriding presidential veto on civil partnerships

Parliamentary vote and threshold

The Polish Sejm failed on Thursday, 17 September 2026, to override the presidential veto of the act on the status of the nearest person in a relationship and joint cohabitation agreements. Overriding a presidential veto in Poland requires a three-fifths majority in the presence of at least half of the statutory 460 lawmakers. With 431 deputies casting ballots and 28 not participating, the required threshold stood at 259 votes. The motion to override secured 232 votes in favor and 199 against, with zero abstentions, leaving proponents 27 votes short of enacting the bill. Under a full attendance of 460 deputies, overriding the veto would have required 276 votes.

Legislative timeline and presidential veto

The legislation, together with its implementing provisions, had passed both parliamentary chambers following its initial adoption on 29 May 2026. The bill represented the first legislative framework in Poland allowing legal formalization for civil partnerships, including same-sex couples. President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the measure on 17 July 2026, arguing that he could not accept solutions affecting the special status of marriage defined in Article 18 of the Constitution as a union of a man and a woman. Chief of the Presidential Cabinet Paweł Szefernaker defended the presidential veto from the Sejm podium prior to the vote.

The president is ready to support solutions that will be practical, transparent and compliant with the Constitution.

Party alignment and voting breakdown

The vote to overturn the veto drew 232 supporting ballots from across government ranks, comprising 152 deputies from Civic Coalition, 23 from PSL-Third Way, 20 from Lewica, 14 from Centrum, 14 from Polska 2050, 4 from Razem, and 5 independent lawmakers. Opponents assembled 199 votes, consisting of 140 deputies from Law and Justice, 35 from Mateusz Morawiecki's Rozwój Plus group, 12 from Konfederacja, 5 from PSL-Third Way, 3 from the Confederation of the Polish Crown, 2 from Demokracja, and 2 independents. The unanimous opposition of Rozwój Plus prevented the governing coalition from securing the required three-fifths supermajority.

Provisions and political reactions

The proposed law would have allowed two adults to conclude an agreement before a notary public, registered with a civil registry office. The contract was designed to govern statutory community property, mutual maintenance obligations, housing rights, hospital access to medical information, and funeral arrangements, with options to attach mutual wills and resolve tax and inheritance matters. Government Plenipotentiary for Equality Katarzyna Kotula criticized conservative lawmakers for maintaining legal barriers against cohabiting couples.

You cannot choose one provision of the constitution and use it as a tool to exclude other citizens from legal protection.

Civic Coalition lawmaker Małgorzata Tracz emphasized that approximately nine percent of families in Poland live in informal unions, stating that the proposal offered basic legal security rather than an institutional change. New Left lawmaker Tomasz Trela criticized right-wing factions on social media, while presidential officials including Szefernaker and Law and Justice deputy Zbigniew Bogucki published statements confirming that the veto had been successfully sustained.