The red area shows the municipalities in Poland that have signed the 'LGBT-free' pledge. (Atlas of Hate)

Fermoy in County Cork, Ireland, has issued an ultimatum to a town in Poland it has a twinning arrangement with over its ‘LGBT-free zone’.

A number of towns across Europe have severed twinning arrangements with Polish towns that have declared themselves ‘”LGBT-free zones’ in recent weeks.

Fermoy in Cork, in the southernmost part of Ireland, had previously said it would terminate its twinning arrangement with Nowa Deba in Poland, BreakingNews.ie reports.

Now, they have gone a step further and issued an ultimatum to the town to backtrack on its decision to declare itself an ‘LGBT-free zone’. If they do not get a satisfactory response, they will terminate their twinning arrangement with immediate effect.

Cork councillor said they will ‘demand an answer’ from Poland town on LGBT-free zones.

Local councillor Noel McCarthy has led calls for Fermoy to sever its twinning arrangement with Nowa Deba over its anti-LGBT+ measure. The town council was due to debate the issue this week, however plans to do so have since been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

If they don’t reply positively then we will immediately terminate the twinning arrangement, which our municipal district council funds.

“I will be asking our municipal district council to write to the Polish municipal council and demand an answer,” councillor McCarthy said.

“In the meantime I want to suspend the town twinning arrangement with them.”

“If they don’t reply positively then we will immediately terminate the twinning arrangement, which our municipal district council funds,” he added.

He hit out at Poland for ‘discriminating’ against the queer community.

Councillor McCarthy spoke out against the chilling revelation that much of Poland had declared itself an ‘LGBT-free zone’ earlier this month.

Speaking at the time, he said the country is “discriminating against the LGBT+ community”.

“Here in Ireland, we recognise gay marriage and we don’t discriminate against any of the LGBT+ community or any other communities for that matter,” he added.

Speaking on C103’s Cork Today radio show, he added: “We are taking a stance and a town in France have done the same who are twinned with Nowa Deba and have also severed ties with them.”

Other towns have enacted similar measures to Fermoy. The French town of Saint-Jean-de-Braye broke its partnership with Tuchów in Poland after it was declared an LGBT-free zone.