Polish far-right presidential candidate stripped of immunity by European Parliament

The European Parliament has voted to strip Gregorz Braun, a Polish far-right MEP, of legal immunity so that he can face charges in his homeland for a variety of alleged crimes, including relating to an incident in which he attacked a Jewish religious celebration in parliament with a fire extinguisher.

Braun, who is standing as a candidate in next month's Polish presidential election, was last year stripped of immunity by Poland's own parliament and charged by prosecutors . But he was subsequently elected to the European Parliament, granting him immunity once again.

Poland's prosecutor general, Adam Bodnar, who also serves as justice minister, had requested that the European Parliament waive Braun's immunity in relation to seven separate incidents that took place in 2022 and 2023.

“A parliamentary mandate may delay the moment of responsibility for one's own actions, but it does not mean impunity,” wrote Bodnar on X ahead of the vote.

The most controversial and widely reported of the incidents happened in December 2023, when Braun used a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles lit during a ceremony in the Polish parliament involving Polish-Jewish leaders.

Braun, who has a long history of attacking minority groups and promoting conspiracy theories, then took to the parliamentary podium to declare that he was “restoring a state of normality by putting an end to acts of satanic, racist triumphalism, because that is the message of these [Hanukkah] holidays.”

The speaker of parliament expelled Braun from the chamber, gave him the highest possible fine, and reported his actions to prosecutors, who later charged him with insulting a religious group, a crime in Poland which carries a potential prison sentence.

Another of the incidents prosecutors have charged Braun in relation to was damaging property when he disrupted a lecture by a Polish-Jewish Holocaust scholar at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw.

He is also accused of insulting and violating the bodily integrity of the director of the National Institute of Cardiology and of damaging a Christmas that he removed from a courthouse because it was decorated with EU and LGBT+ flags.

After today's vote to strip him of immunity, Braun published a video of himself setting fire to an EU flag and wrote: “Down with Euro-communism! This is Poland.”

During the ongoing presidential campaign, Braun has continued to stir controversy. Prosecutors are currently investigating him over anti-Jewish remarks made during a televised debate last week about the alleged “Judaization” of Poland.

He is also being investigated for other incidents in which he encouraged the removal of a Ukrainian flag from outside a Polish city hall and in which he vandalized an exhibition about LGBT+ people on a Polish town square

Braun is a minor presidential candidate, with polls giving him support of between 1% and 3% throughout the campaign. The main logo of his presidential bid has been a fire extinguisher, in reference to the attack on the Hanukkah celebration in parliament.

Main image credit: © European Union 2025 – Source: EP