Polish far-right politician announces relationship with intersex woman and quits party

A politician with Poland’s far-right Konfederacja (Confederation) has said he has left the party after announcing he is in a relationship with an intersex woman.

In a joint interview with the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Dawid Szóstak and model Michalina Manios confirmed they were dating and said they want to "focus on what's important."

The couple emphasised their shared values, such as their Catholic faith and respect for traditions.

Szóstak said they had met through an online platform but gave no further details.

"I liked the photos Michalina posted," he said. "They radiated a lot of energy and femininity."

Szóstak contacted her through the platform and said an emotional connection developed between them.

"Everything happened quite naturally. We became a couple," Manios explained. "We have respect and understanding for each other."

A youth 'in prison'

Manios became known to the public in 2011 after participating in the TV casting show "Zostań modelką" (Top Model).

On the programme she spoke about her early life and explained how she was born intersex and raised as a boy until she was 18.

She described those years as like being “in prison," saying, “Functionally, I developed as a woman, but unfortunately, I was assigned a male identity, not any other."

"My body and mind developed toward femininity, but my genitals didn't. I was ashamed to go to physical education classes because I was embarrassed," Manios said.

Manios legally became a woman at the age of 18 and moved to Sweden to study philology and psychology.

She currently divides her time between Sweden and Poland.

A dedicated local activist in far-right circles, Szóstak was the leader of the hard-right Konfederacja in Katowice and unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Polish parliament.

Political hard-right

Konfederacja is considered one of the most politically extreme parties in Poland, with party leader Sławomir Mentzen summarising its goals in 2019 as, "We stand against Jews, homosexuals, abortion, taxes, and also the European Union!"

In Poland’s presidential election earlier this year, more than 50% of voters cast their ballots for right-wing candidates, with Mentzen taking 14.8% of the vote and making inroads into the youth vote.

"Not necessarily because of the views he preaches, but because, firstly, he is anti-system, and young people very often do not like the system, they do not like the state and its institutions. But also simply because he seemed cool to them," Dr Olgierd Annusewicz, a political scientist from the University of Warsaw, told Euronews.

"There are certainly a great many people out there who strongly believe in certain isolationist thoughts, are averse to the European Union, or think in very traditional terms in general, on social issues for example, where Slawomir Mentzen has expressed himself."

Konfederacja is also part of the Europe of Sovereign Nations, a grouping of right-wing political parties in the European Parliament.