A court has ruled that the Polish parliament is permitted to display the crucifix.

A small secular party had argued that the presence of the crucifix discriminated against them as nonbelievers.

However the court ruled that, having regard to Poland’s Christian heritage, the crucifix was not simply a religious symbol, but also a national symbol, ABC News reports.

Judge Edyta Jefimko ruled against members of the small opposition Your Movement party, held that the crucifix was emblematic of “culture and natural identity” in the predominantly Catholic country.

The Catholic Church united and supported Poles when the country was partitioned in the 19th century, during World War II and under decades of communism. Crosses and crucifixes can be found in schools and some offices across Poland.

Public signs of faith, like crosses in offices and religion classes at schools have recently come under criticism in Poland.

Recently, a nonbeliever sued a hospital after he found out that he was given the last rights there while unconscious.

On Monday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk welcomed the verdict, saying that separation of church and state should not be expressed through “fights over whether the cross should be put up or not”.

Religious lawmakers put the crucifix up in parliament in the middle of the night in 1997 to cut short a heated debate over whether it should be placed there as a symbol of the end of communism and return to national Catholic values. Traditional respect for religion has kept it there.

Opponents vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.