Poland moved a step closer to legalising civil partnerships with the publication of a draft law on Friday that the minister responsible for the legislation hailed as a “historic day” in a country where gay rights have proved bitterly divisive. Donald Tusk’s pro-European coalition government swept to power in predominantly Catholic Poland last year largely thanks to younger, liberal voters keen to draw a line under eight years of nationalist rule during which the struggle for LGBT equality was branded by those in power as a dangerous foreign ideology. However, some of those voters have become disillusioned with what they see as the slow pace of change, putting the onus on Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition and one of its partners in government, the Left, to show progress in charting a more socially liberal course ahead of a 2025 presidential election.