Poland asks EU Parliament to strip far-right leader of immunity over Holocaust denial charges

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland has asked the European Parliament to lift the legal immunity of far-right leader Grzegorz Braun so that he can face charges for recent comments in which he called the gas chambers at Auschwitz “fake”.

In a statement on Friday, the National Prosecutor’s Office announced that Braun, who finished fourth in Poland’s recent presidential election, was accused of denying Nazi crimes, an offence in Poland that can be punished with a prison sentence of up to three years.

The case pertains to two statements made in July by Braun, who has a long history of spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories. In one, he said, during a radio interview, that it is “Auschwitz with its gas chambers is unfortunately a fake”.

A few days later, while appearing on a podcast, he reiterated that he finds the “hypothesis of the existence” of gas chambers at Auschwitz to be “a tenuous one, not based on verified facts” and that “for me personally, this hypothesis has become less and less convincing over the years”.

Braun’s remarks were widely condemned in Poland, including by figures from both the government – a coalition ranging from left to centre right – and the right-wing opposition.

In its statement today, the National Prosecutor’s Office noted that Waldemar Żurek, who serves as both justice minister and prosecutor general, has submitted a request to the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, for Braun’s immunity to be lifted.

The parliament can strip an MEP of immunity in a majority vote. However, processing and considering such requests is usually a lengthy procedure, lasting at least a few months.

In May, the European Parliament approved a separate request to lift Braun’s immunity to face charges for a variety of alleged crimes, including relating to an incident in which he attacked a Jewish religious celebration in the Polish parliament with a fire extinguisher.

In July, Poland issued another request for Braun’s immunity to be lifted in relation to separate charges for alleged anti-Jewish, anti-LGBT+ and anti-Ukrainian crimes committed during and after his recent presidential election campaign

Auschwitz was originally set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland in 1940 as a camp to house Polish “political” prisoners, before later becoming primarily a site for the murder of Jews.

At least 1.3 million victims were transported there, with at least 1.1 million of them killed at the camp. Around one million of those victims were Jews, most of whom were murdered in gas chambers immediately after their arrival. The second largest group of victims were ethnic Poles.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: European Union 2024 – Source : EP

Daniel Tilles

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.