Polski przywódca skrajnej prawicy Braun ponownie pozbawiony immunitetu prawnego przez Parlament Europejski

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Polish far-right leader Grzegorz Braun has been stripped of immunity by the European Parliament (EP) to face charges in his homeland, including for inciting religious hatred against Jews and over an incident in which he confronted a doctor involved in carrying out a late-term abortion.

It is the second time this year that Braun has had his immunity lifted by the EP to face various charges in Poland, and further requests to bring charges against him are still pending.

On Thursday morning, an overwhelming majority of 554 MEPs voted in favour of waiving Braun's immunity. Only 60 were opposed to the motion, including MEPs from Poland's opposition national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, reports news website Onet.

The request to lift Braun's immunity was filed in June this year by Poland's then justice minister and prosecutor general, Adam Bodnar, who said that Polish prosecutors wanted to charge the far-right leader with six alleged crimes.

Four of them relate to an incident in April when Braun entered a hospital and confronted a gynecologist who had been involved in a late-term abortion that had drawn controversy and condemnation from right-wing groups.

Braun is accused of deprivation of liberty (for preventing the doctor from leaving her office), violating the doctor's bodily integrity (by pushing her and holding her down) as well as insulting and slandering her.

The fifth charge Braun is now facing stems from an infamous incident in December 2023, when he attacked a Jewish Hanukkah celebration in parliament, putting out the candles with a fire extinguisher.

Braun has already been stripped of immunity, charged and indicted in relation to the incident itself. Now, however, prosecutors want to charge him over a subsequent YouTube interview about the attack.

During the interview, he “described Hanukkah as a Satanic and racist celebration posing a threat to Polish Catholics, which should be counteractedâ€, say prosecutors, who want to charge him with publicly inciting religious hatred and the disruption of religious acts, as well as the crime of offending religious sentiment.

Finally, prosecutors want to charge Braun with destruction of property for an incident during his presidential campaign in March this year when he vandalised and damaged posters that were part of an LGBT+ exhibition in the city of Opole.

Braun's presidential campaign was characterised by controversy, with the candidate undertaking a series of anti-Ukrainian, anti-Jewish and anti-LGBT actions. He went on to finish fourth in the election, winning 6.3% of the vote.

Previously, Braun was one of the leaders of Confederation (Konfederacja), a far-right group that has seats in Poland's parliament. However, he was expelled this year after announcing a rival presidential bid to Confederationa's official candidate, SÅ‚awomir Mentzen, who ended up finishing third in the election.

In May this year, the EP approved a request to strip Braun of immunity over the Hanukkah incident and other alleged crimes, including disturbing the peace during a Holocaust lecture and assaulting and insulting a public official.

There are also two further requests to lift Braun's immunity still pending. One, submitted in July, relates to alleged anti-Jewish, anti-LGBT+ and anti-Ukrainian crimes committed during and after Braun's presidential election campaign.

The other, submitted in September, is for denying Nazi crimes, after Braun recently declared that “Auschwitz with its gas chambers is unfortunately a fakeâ€.

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 2025 – Source : EP

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.