Trial of Polish far-right leader for attacking Jewish celebration in parliament begins

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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.

The trial of far-right leader Grzegorz Braun has begun in Warsaw. He is accused of crimes relating to four incidents – the most infamous among them his attack on a celebration of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah in parliament in December 2023 – and could face prison if convicted.

Braun, who has a long history of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, declared in court that he was facing trial because he had “dared to defend myself against Jewish supremacy”. Dozens of his supporters gathered outside to show their support.

The case has taken so long to come to trial because prosecutors needed first to apply for Braun to be stripped of legal immunity by Poland’s parliament and then, after he was subsequently elected to the European Parliament, repeat the process. He was finally charged and indicted in July this year.

In the meantime, Braun has revelled in his notoriety. Standing in this year’s presidential elections, he used as his logo an image of the fire extinguisher with which he attempted to put out Hanukkah candles in parliament.

While he began the campaign as a rank outsider, Braun ended up finishing fourth in the election, winning 6.3% of the vote.

In relation to the Hanukkah incident, Braun has been indicted for the crimes of insulting a religious group, malicious interference with a religious act and offending religious feelings, as well as assaulting and causing harm to the health of a woman who had been involved in the ceremony.

He is also standing trial for causing damage to property and disturbing the peace during a lecture by Jan Grabowski, a Polish-Canadian Holocaust scholar, and during a separate incident in which he removed a Christmas tree from a courthouse because it was decorated with EU and LGBT+ flags.

Finally, he has been indicted for assaulting and insulting a public official during an incident in which Braun entered the National Institute of Cardiology and confronted its director, Łukasz Szumowski.

Szumowski was Poland’s health minister during part of the Covid pandemic and has been blamed by Braun and his supporters for the lockdown and vaccination policies that they see as part of a global conspiracy.

Addressing the court today, Braun declared: “I am accused by Jews who are ‘professional Jews.’ That is, they represent various formations and associations. I have been ritually cursed and damned.”

“I am standing before this court because I dared to defend myself against oppression and the ritual manifestation of Jewish supremacy,” he added, quoted by news service I.pl.

He also called for the removal of the judge presiding over the case, Marcin Brzostko, arguing that he was appointed to his position unlawfully after the judicial reforms of the former Law and Justice (PiS) government rendered the body responsible for nominating judges illegitimate.

“I do not want to enter into this dispute [over the rule of law], but out of procedural prudence, I do not want to participate in proceedings whose legality may be questioned later,” said Braun, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Brzostko, however, announced that a separate court had considered Braun’s request to exclude him and had rejected it.

After the indictments against him were read, Braun pleaded not guilty, saying that he had “acted in the public interest”. The various offences Braun is accused of carry potential prison sentences, of up to three years in two cases.

Braun is separately subject to investigations by prosecutors for a number of other alleged crimes, many relating to various anti-Jewish, anti-LGBT and anti-Ukrainian rhetoric and actions carried out during his presidential campaign this year.

Last month, the European Parliament again stripped Braun of immunity to face charges for six alleged crimes, including inciting religious hatred against Jews, assaulting a doctor involved in carrying out a late-term abortion, and vandalising an LGBT+ exhibition.

There are also two further requests to lift Braun’s immunity still pending. One, submitted in September, is for denying Nazi crimes, after Braun recently declared that “Auschwitz with its gas chambers is unfortunately a fake”.

The publicity afforded Braun by his recent presidential run and various legal cases against him have boosted interest in his political party, Confederation of the Polish Crown (KPP), which now has support of around 6-7%, according to polls.

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: Kuba Atys / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

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.