Slupsk gains Poland’s first openly gay mayor?

Robert Biedroń, an LGBT campaigner and member of maverick MP Janusz Palikot’s ultra-liberal ‘Your Movement’, won the elections in Słupsk, northern Poland. Photo: PAP/Jan Dzban

The 38-year-old managed to muster 57.08 percent of the ballot (15,308 votes), beating the ruling Civic Platform’s candidate Zbigniew Konwinski, who received 42.92 percent (11,511 votes).

In the first round of voting on 16 November, Biedron managed to garner 20.34 percent, coming second to Civic Platform’s Konwinski (29.09), but beating Law and Justice’s candidate Robert Kujawski (18.65 percent).

The result turned heads as previous polls predicted that Konwinski and Kujawski would go head-to-head in the second round.

Robert Biedron is a graduate of political and social science from the University of Warmia and Mazuria in Olsztyn, and is better known for setting up and running the Campaign Against Homophobia.

In 2011 he became an MP from the Gdynia-Slupsk constituency, winning almost 17,000 votes.

Speaking to the PAP news agency following his victory, Biedron said that “I will lead a very modest [local government], as this town is modest, as well as being one of the most debt-ridden in Poland.”

“The three limousines which are available to the mayor will no longer be mine, as I go everywhere by bicycle,” Biedron underlined, adding that he is also to move to the town. (jb)

Source: PAP