Thousands protest election results in Poland

Thousands of supporters of the main opposition party, the conservative Law and Justice, gather at the Three Crosses square in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014. Alik Keplicz/AP 

Vanessa GeraThe Associated Press
Thousands of supporters of a conservative opposition party in Poland marched on Saturday to protest the results of recent local elections, which party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski says were falsified.

The November elections were marred by problems, with a computer glitch delaying results and many ballots declared invalid because voters apparently were confused and marked them incorrectly.

However, there is no indication they were falsified. Kaczynski’s critics accuse him of making false claims about the election outcome to motivate his base ahead of national elections next year.

His supporters marched in Warsaw under the slogan “in the support of democracy,” chanting “repeat the elections.”

Robert Biedron makes history as first Poland gay mayor

In this Thursday Nov. 27, 2014 picture, Joanna Erbel, a bisexual candidate for the role of mayor of Warsaw, arrives for an interview with The Associated Press, in Warsaw, Poland.

Vanessa GeraThe Associated Press
Robert Biedron already made history once in Poland by becoming the first openly gay lawmaker in parliament in 2011. On Monday, he became the country’s first openly gay mayor.

The 38-year-old’s political successes are a marker of how quickly this deeply conservative and Catholic country has changed in the decade since it joined the European Union. Back then, in 2004, gay rights marches were still being banned and homosexuality was treated as a huge taboo. Since then a growing acceptance of gays and lesbians has arrived hand-in-hand with a flourishing economy.

“I see how fast Polish society has learned its lesson of tolerance,” Biedron told The Associated Press in an interview two days before he was elected Sunday to be mayor of Slupsk, a city near the Baltic Sea in northern Poland. “So I am very optimistic and happy with Polish society — and proud.”

But it’s not just him. In what the Polish media are calling “the Biedron effect,” a record number of candidates also came out publicly before the local elections, which took place in two rounds over the last two weeks.