Incumbent Polish President Andrzej Duda, who is expected to secure a second term in his country's June 28 election, spoke out against "LGBT ideology" in a speech on his campaign trail.
BBCNews reported that last week, Duda signed a series of election promises, including pledges to prevent LGBT couples from getting married or adopting children as well as a ban on discussing LGTB-related issues in Polish schools.
In his speech, Duda said "this is not why my parents' generation struggled for 40 years to expel communist ideology from schools, so that it could be imposed on children, brainwashing and indoctrinating them…They did not fight so that we would now accept that another ideology, even more destructive, would come along, an ideology which under the clichés of respect and tolerance hides deep intolerance".
Equating anything to communism is a renowned method of igniting widespread animosity in the Eastern European state that fell victim to Soviet oppression for nearly half of the previous century.
Duda's party has been at odds with the EU over reforms it hopes will eliminate remains of communism in the country. EU officials, in the meantime, have claimed Poland's leading party is violating some of its guiding values.
The European Commission directed criticism at Polish political figures, in light of resolutions in which they declare their precincts "free of LGBT ideology."