This interview was originally published in French on the Breizh Info website.
A lawyer, father of six children, and founder of the Ordo Iuris Institute, Jerzy Kwaśniewski (Ordo Iuris) is one of the central figures of conservative legal resistance in Central Europe. From the constitutional defense of life in Poland to the denunciation of the gender ideology imposed by Brussels, he bluntly deciphers what he considers to be an authoritarian drift in Western liberal democracies. A candid interview on abortion, demographics, faith, the rule of law, and the decisive battle now being fought in the courts.
Breizh-info.com:Mr. Kwaśniewski, you are both a lawyer and the founder of Ordo Iuris. What first convinced you that the legal battlefield—not just the cultural one—was the decisive front in today’s civilizational struggle?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: After half a century of communism, Poland had become a desert in terms of civic participation in public and social life. In this desert, the only remnant of a healthy civil society was the Catholic Church, which had survived decades of communist domination. Only after twenty years of freedom did grassroots civic circles begin to emerge. Before that, the only such organizations were those artificially established by George Soros, who sought to influence the NGO landscape in Poland and in other countries of the region.
Together with a group of like-minded lawyers, we saw clearly the absence of a professional voice defending fundamental rights and freedoms—a voice that would uphold conservative values, stand for life and liberty, and counterbalance liberal dominance in academia, the judiciary, and the media. This is why, in 2013, we created the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture: to prepare expert reports and analyses in the fields of human rights, philosophy, and political science; to strengthen the arguments of those defending life, family, and freedom; and, at the same time, to advocate for these values before Polish courts.
Breizh-info.com:Poland is often cited as a model for constitutional protection of life. From your experience, what were the key strategic steps that allowed the pro-life movement to succeed where many others in Europe have failed?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: Poland’s 1993 law on Family Planning, the Protection of Fetuses, and the Conditions for Permitting the Termination of Pregnancy is a good example of how legislation can influence the evolution of public opinion—for better or worse. What is specific to our country is that abortion had been legalized only twice in our history: first during World War II by the German Nazi occupiers, and only for Jewish and Polish women; and later from the 1950s onward by the Communist regime imposed on us from Moscow. However, after 50 years of Communism, only a minority supported restricting abortion when Poland transitioned to democracy and a free-market economy in 1989–90.
Thanks to effective lobbying by pro-life organizations and the strong advocacy of the Catholic Church for the right to life of the unborn, it became possible to convince a majority of MPs that abortion should be allowed only under certain conditions and not available on demand. After the 1993 law was passed—along with advances in medical science and imaging that made it increasingly difficult to ignore the human nature of the unborn child, the teachings of the Church in a country with a high proportion of practicing Catholics, and the dedicated work of the pro-life movement—Poles quickly came to believe that the right to life of every human being should be protected from conception to natural death, and that abortion on demand should not be an option in our country.
In 1997, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal issued a landmark ruling after a left-wing, post-communist parliamentary majority had reintroduced abortion on social grounds, such as difficult living conditions or a difficult personal situation. In short, the Tribunal held that since no other moment than conception can be scientifically designated as the beginning of a person’s life, constitutional protection of the right to life must apply from the moment of conception. Later rulings by the Tribunal reaffirmed and strengthened this protection, including in 2020, when a decision prohibited eugenic abortion—that is, abortion motivated by a diagnosis of abnormality or an incurable illness of the unborn child, such as Down syndrome—which by then had become the most common reason for abortion in Poland. That petition was submitted to the Tribunal by over 100 MPs, again thanks to years of lobbying by organizations like ours and support from the Catholic Church.
In our country, not only Catholic priests and bishops but also many politicians, activists, and journalists are unafraid to speak clearly and forcefully about the killing of unborn babies and to call abortion what it always is—regardless of the terminology used to describe it: the murder of a human being.
Breizh-info.com:At the Conservative Summit in Bratislava, you highlighted the moral and legal threats facing Europe. In your view, what is the most urgent challenge today: demographic collapse, ideological indoctrination, or the erosion of the rule of law?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: I would say all three of them. The erosion of the rule of law goes hand in hand with ideological indoctrination. Liberal democracy stemmed from Christianity, and this was no coincidence: a liberal society functions well when grounded in shared Christian values. As many Western societies give up their Christian faith—and, consequently, their Christian values—what are now referred to as “European values” on the Old Continent increasingly reflect the dominant ideologies of our time. Since these values are neither widely shared nor grounded in Truth, they must be imposed, which naturally leads to the erosion of the rule of law and of our liberties.
Indoctrination and repression are necessary conditions for convincing a majority of people that killing a child in the womb is not murder, or that one’s sex is “assigned” at birth and can be changed. Moreover, the dominant ideologies of our era—green ideology, woke ideology, and gender ideology, as well as a certain brand of feminism—are a recipe for demographic disaster and for the colonization of our lands by other civilizations that do not share these beliefs. The decline in fertility in Europe, including in Poland, is largely cultural, which is why it is so difficult to reverse this extremely dangerous trend.
Breizh-info.com:You are known for insisting that human rights have been “captured” by ideological lobbies in Brussels and Strasbourg. How can conservatives reclaim the language of rights without abandoning universal principles?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: In fact, it is those lobbies that have abandoned universal principles. If conservatives are to reclaim the language of rights, they simply need to return to the beginning—that is, to natural law. The authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights intended to create a document that would list unalienable natural rights supported by the broadest possible consensus: a global consensus of all countries and nations. These included the right to life, the right to marriage between a man and a woman, the right to private property, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and fundamental political freedoms. It is a very selective set of unalienable rights, and if we want a strong human rights system, we need to remain faithful to that set.
As the scope of human rights is broadened and new rights are created and implemented, the global consensus disappears. Moreover, these new rights often trample upon the original ones: the supposed right to be protected from “hate speech” infringes upon freedom of speech; the right to abortion infringes upon the right to life; and so on.
Breizh-info.com:Polish society is often portrayed in Western Europe as “illiberal” because of its pro-family policies. What does this label reveal about the ideological assumptions of EU institutions?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: “Illiberal democracy” is a term used by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to describe Hungarian democracy as a form of democracy free from what he sees as the totalitarian and authoritarian drift of Western Europe’s liberal democracies. It was never used by the United Right coalition led by Law and Justice, which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023. It is certain media outlets and politicians in other European countries who applied the term to Poland—not because of its family policies, but in order to place it on par with Orbán’s Hungary, with both countries being accused by the Left and by Brussels of violating the rule of law and being authoritarian.
In reality, however, it is the EU-backed left-liberal government of Donald Tusk that has been openly and seriously violating the rule of law since December 2023. Tellingly, the same media and politicians no longer call Poland “illiberal,” although for them the word seems to function as a synonym for “authoritarian.”
To answer your question, we are now living in times when “war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, and the penised individual who raped you is a woman,” to paraphrase J.K. Rowling paraphrasing George Orwell.
Breizh-info.com:You have represented citizens’ committees such as “Stop Abortion” before Polish and international bodies. What has been your most instructive experience dealing with the Venice Commission, OSCE, or similar institutions?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: Engagement with institutions such as the Venice Commission or the OSCE has shown how strongly prevailing assumptions within these bodies influence debates on fundamental rights, often narrowing the space for perspectives grounded in more traditional legal principles. Conservative pro-life organizations consistently report that this environment demands exceptional precision and persistence to ensure their arguments are not sidelined. This becomes even clearer at the UN: during ECOSOC work and sessions such as the Commission on the Status of Women, we observe that we are often the only pro-life NGO from Europe present, highlighting the structural imbalance within global forums.
As a result, we emphasize the need to build wider international networks and encourage similarly oriented groups from Europe and regions such as Africa to participate, so that global discussions reflect genuine pluralism rather than a uniform ideological line. We have published a guide for non-governmental organizations wishing to engage in the protection of human rights in the international arena, and we offer them expert support. This guide was first presented during a conference on the family in Kenya and can be downloaded from the Citizens Against Global Governance website.
Breizh-info.com:Ordo Iuris has been accused by its critics of undermining democracy. How do you respond to the charge that defending life, family, and religious liberty is “anti-democratic”?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: We have been accused of many things, including being financed by the Kremlin, even though we are one of the few NGOs in Europe that funds its activities exclusively through donations from private individuals—mainly Polish families who see how active and effective we are in defending the values they believe are worth protecting.
It is characteristic of today’s liberal Left that when they run out of arguments, they accuse you of being aligned with Putin’s Russia and of undermining democracy. This is the old Stalinist “call them fascists” method, and it is yet another symptom of the totalitarian drift in Western liberal democracy, which we discussed earlier.
Why on earth should it be considered “anti-democratic” that we make use of our democratic rights—through think-tank work and judicial litigation—to defend the right to life from conception to natural death; the family based on the union of a man and a woman raising children; the rights of parents to educate their children according to their beliefs (a right enshrined in the Polish Constitution and in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights); the right of children to live with their parents and not be taken away without good reason; individual liberties such as freedom of expression and religious freedom; and national sovereignty, which is a necessary condition for democracy to exist and function?
Such accusations are particularly misplaced now that Poland is governed— with full support from the EU, including the release of funds that had previously been withheld for years—by a coalition that openly claims to be using the tools of “militant democracy,” meaning it is taking unlawful action to permanently eliminate its conservative opposition. I encourage readers who can read English to follow the actions of Donald Tusk’s government on our website, rule-of-law-observer.pl, where we document the most blatant violations of the rule of law. This is not just a matter for Poles, as we increasingly have the impression that Poland is now being treated by the ruling elites in Brussels and some national capitals as an experimental field to test whether they can remain in power by using the very toolkit of “militant democracy”—that is, by claiming that their opposition is a threat to democracy and therefore should be kept from power by undemocratic means.
Breizh-info.com:You helped found Collegium Intermarium, a conservative law school in Warsaw. Why is forming a new generation of jurists so crucial for Europe’s future, and what is wrong with the current academic model?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: We cofounded Collegium Intermarium in 2021 as a private university meant to bring together Central Europe’s elites from the historic Intermarium region. It offered a space for free debate and classical scholarship at a time when many academics rooted in traditional values were being marginalized by ideological censorship in Western universities. The institution sought to revive the medieval ideal of a university grounded in the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness, while addressing the regional crisis in higher education through a tutorial system based on close mentorship and high academic standards.
Among its key international programs was an LLM in human rights, one of the first in Central Europe to return to a classical, document-based understanding of human rights rather than newer ideological interpretations. It served civil servants, diplomats, lawyers, and others seeking solid theoretical and practical training.
In three years, the university attracted over 400 students in both master law degree and postgraduate programs, organized more than 30 conferences, established partnerships across Europe and the US, and hosted lecturers from numerous countries—successes that confirmed its founding mission.
However, the new left-liberal government, aiming to weaken conservative institutions under the banner of “militant democracy,” placed the university on the “Sienkiewicz’s list” of conservative and Christian organizations targeted for politically motivated oversight. Sienkiewicz was the name of Donald Tusk’s Culture Minister. Funding guaranteed under existing agreements was suspended, multiple audits were launched, and a government agency terminated the university’s lease. Sponsors withdrew support, fearing reprisals.
To protect its students amid intensifying pressure, Collegium Intermarium helped them transfer to other institutions. With enrollment halted and operations undermined, the university was ultimately forced to suspend its activities.
It is just one of many examples of similar, systematic persecutions implemented by liberals to ensure that no independent conservative structures survive under their rule. Our strategy of avoiding any level of state dependency for Ordo Iuris’s core structures has paid off in moments like this, as Ordo Iuris has remained an independent center of resistance against what was described just a few days ago as a “crypto-dictatorship” by a judge who refused to recognize the European Arrest Warrant for former Deputy Minister of Justice Marcin Romanowski, a Polish Law and Justice (PiS) MP who has been granted asylum in Hungary.
Breizh-info.com:From a legal perspective, what is the strongest argument against the EU’s attempt to impose gender ideology and identity politics on member states?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union is crystal clear:
“The Union shall act only within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties to attain the objectives set out therein. Competences not conferred upon the Union in the Treaties remain with the Member States.”
Member States have not conferred on the EU any competence that would allow it to impose gender ideology or identity politics on them. Doing so is, unfortunately, one of many examples of EU institutions—particularly the European Commission—violating the most basic principles of democracy and the rule of law.
Moreover, the EU’s attempt to promote these left-wing ideologies under the guise of “European values,” including through financial pressure when allocating EU funds, violates Article 14 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which states that “the right of parents to ensure the education and teaching of their children in conformity with their religious, philosophical and pedagogical convictions shall be respected, in accordance with the national laws governing the exercise of such freedom and right.”
Breizh-info.com:The Polish experience shows that pro-family policies can raise fertility rates when they are coherent and long-term. Do you believe other European countries could replicate this model, or is it uniquely Polish?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: Well, to be frank, we can hardly talk of a success when fertility in Poland, after a short improvement in 2016-17, has now fallen to under 1.1 child per woman.
Poland’s pro-natality policy has fallen short because it relied too narrowly on cash benefits while deeper structural barriers to family formation remained unresolved. Financial transfers improved poverty reduction but could not compensate for the lack of stable employment among young adults, widespread use of temporary contracts, and persistent housing difficulties that make long-term planning difficult.
Another major obstacle is the large education gap: far more young women than men obtain higher education, leaving many women in urban centers without potential partners, which significantly reduces family formation.
Childcare for children under three is also insufficient, especially compared with countries where fertility is higher. Nations such as the Czech Republic and Romania invest heavily in supporting parents during the first years of a child’s life—through long, well-paid parental leave or substantial early-childhood benefits—which eases the transition to parenthood and encourages larger families, while giving women the possibility to stay home longer after giving birth, to care for their young children.
To improve natality, Poland needs a coherent, long-term strategy: stabilizing labor conditions, expanding affordable housing, reducing structural barriers that delay family formation, strengthening early childcare and parental support, and ensuring that women are not pressured to return to the labor market as soon as possible after giving birth, while still preserving the option for those who wish to do so. Only a comprehensive approach can sustainably raise fertility.
Breizh-info.com:You have a large family yourself—six children. How has your personal life shaped your understanding of demography, culture, and the survival of European civilization?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: A large family was never my grand strategy for saving civilization. It is about love, security, trust, and a private sanctuary for all of us. When I started a family, I was a young lawyer—just after graduating, at the very beginning of my legal training. Before I had obtained my professional title, we already had three children and were expecting another. At that stage, I was not thinking at all about public engagement on such a scale. I was working on cases involving international investments, banking law, and ownership transformations.
It was only the confrontation with the growing ideological propaganda of Donald Tusk’s first government that prompted me to respond to a request from colleagues at the University of Warsaw, who were considering the creation of a professional analytical and litigation center to support a conservative side that was clearly under-equipped in terms of arguments. Without such an intellectual contribution, liberals were able to marginalize defenders of the family, life, and freedom as old-fashioned, doomed to extinction, and simply backward.
Our task was to demonstrate that the intellectual, moral, and narrative advantage lies on the side of what is plainly rational and normal—on the side of what is often labelled “conservatism”: the family, faith, private property, and the right to live one’s life without a state imposing instruments of social engineering.
Breizh-info.com:Finally, what advice would you give to young Central and Western Europeans who want to defend life, family, and national identity in environments that are often openly hostile to conservative values?
Jerzy Kwaśniewski: Remember that activism can never replace professionalism: build your competence, your families, and your businesses first, because these are the strongest instruments for restoring social order and natural law. Seek environments where professional excellence and service to the common good go hand in hand, but know that every year of serious work, intellectual formation, and the courage to start a family—even before achieving full financial security—gives you the joy and confidence needed for real public service.
And above all, remember faith: without lived and practiced Christian faith, there is no Western civilization—no rights and freedoms, no respect for the autonomy of the family. If our societies do not turn again toward faith and toward the Savior born in Bethlehem, if we do not place our hopes and aspirations in the salvation of souls, our civilization built on sound reason, revelation, and grace will collapse within two generations. There is no other fuel that can sustain it.
Source of cover photo: Ordo Iuris
