A strong family is the foundation of a strong society and a key priority for Poland’s conservative government, the country’s prime minister said on Saturday.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (centre) attends a gathering of families with three and more children in the northwestern Polish city of Szczecin on Saturday. Photo: PAP/Marcin Bielecki

Addressing a meeting of large families, Mateusz Morawiecki said that “there can be no strong Poland without strong families.”

He told the gathering in the northwestern city of Szczecin that large families were helping build a "strong, beautiful and proud Poland … a great Poland, the Poland of our dreams."

More than 1,200 members of large families – those with three and more children – from both Poland and other European countries, including Latvia, Hungary and Lithuania, gathered in Szczecin for the 6th Nationwide Convention of Large Families, which doubled as the 9th European Conference of Large Families, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

The PAP news agency noted that Morawiecki was at the event presented with an award recognising him as a "friend of large families."

Poland’s socially conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, which came to power in late 2015, aims to ease the burdens of child rearing by giving families with two or more children a handout of PLN 500 (USD 136, EUR 116) a month per child.

Poorer families receive the allowance even if they have just one child.

Government ministers have lauded the “500+” programme for reducing poverty in Poland.

Morawiecki said in March that his government’s flagship child benefits programme would continue for “many years.”

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP/IAR