The Polish deputy Grzegorz Braun, from the far-right Confederation party, put out the chandelier lit for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah with a fire extinguisher in the premises of the Sejm (lower house of the Polish Parliament) in Warsaw, which led the president of the chamber to exclude him from the session and caused great indignation.
Footage posted on the website of private broadcaster TVN24 shows Braun grabbing a fire extinguisher and then walking across the parliament lobby to where the candles were, creating a large white cloud and forcing security guards to remove people from the building. area. Television images show people covered in dust from the fire extinguisher.
Following this, the congressman took the chamber podium where he described Hanukkah as “satanic” and said he was restoring “normality.”
When asked shortly after the incident if he felt ashamed, Braun responded: “Those who engage in acts of satanic worship should be ashamed.”
House Speaker Szymon Holownia excluded him from the session and said he would inform prosecutors about his actions. After which, Braun left the chamber and shook hands with other far-right legislators.
“There will be no tolerance for racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism… as long as I am the speaker of parliament,” Holownia told reporters.
Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told Reuters by phone that Braun’s actions were not representative of the country and that he was “embarrassed” by them.
“Someone blew out the Hanukkah candles and a few minutes later we lit them again,” he said. “For thousands of years, our enemies have been trying to extinguish us, from the time of the Maccabees to Hamas. But our enemies should learn, they cannot extinguish us.”
Cardinal Grzegorz Rys of Poland’s Catholic church said in a statement posted on social media platform X that he was ashamed of Braun’s actions. “(I apologize) to the entire Jewish community in Poland,” he wrote.
