Some locals here, in a stronghold of Poland’s newly re-elected President Andrzej Duda, don’t see it that way. LGBT rights have become a flashpoint in a culture war between Europe’s West, which is becoming broadly more socially liberal, and its East, which hews to more conservative views. The social schism threatens EU unity and collective action at a time of political and economic stress. Politicians in countries of the East that were behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War present themselves as defending traditions and Christian values. For many in the West, that approach is at odds with fundamental tenets of Western liberal democracy.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 16, 2020 15:56 UTC