A prominent Polish far-right figure and suspended Catholic priest, Jacek Międlar, has been found guilty of hate speech against Jews and Ukrainians.
Speaking at a nationalist rally in the city of Wrocław on Independence Day in November 2017, Międlar condemned “Jews intoxicated with Talmudic hatred” and the “Jewish, Marxist horde”, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
He said that “synagogues only stand on Polish soil…as a result of our…lack of prudence”, and also condemned the “propaganda” of the “Jewish-Ukrainian Szechter known as Michnik” – a reference to Adam Michnik, the editor of leading liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza.
Międlar, who is known for outspoken antisemitic, Islamophobic and homophobic views, was ordained as a priest in 2015 but later suspended by the church. In December 2019, he was detained on suspicion of inciting hatred – a crime that carries a sentence of up to two years in prison – and then indicated two months later.
Today, the district court in Wrocław announced that Międlar has been found guilty of insulting and inciting hatred against people of Jewish and Ukrainian nationality, reports PAP. He was sentenced to 30 hours a month of community service for one year.
The sentence can still be appealed, meaning that Międlar’s identity would normally be protected. But he took to Twitter to identify himself, calling the case against him a “Stalinist circus” and advertising one of his books, Poland in the Shadow of Jewry.
Międlar has faced various legal actions in Poland over his hateful rhetoric, one of which resulted in him being found guilty for suggesting that a female liberal MP deserved “the razor”. He has been banned from entering the UK due to his extremist activity.
In the case ruled upon today, one of Międlar’s fellow speakers at the same event in 2017 was also sentenced for inciting hatred against Muslims by declaring: “We do not want Islam; we want it banned; this is not a religion.” The man – named only as Mateusz G. – received six months of community service.
In 2019, another Independence Day march led by Międlar was called off by the authorities due to antisemitic chants. At the same event in 2018, Międlar warned that some were “trying to fill our beloved homeland with international Jews”. He called for “a holy war against…the enemies of the fatherland”.
Main image credit: Tomasz Pietrzyk / Agencja Gazeta
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
