Grzegorz Braun | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chairman of the KKP | |
| Assumed office 7 September 2019 | |
| Member of the Sejm | |
| Assumed office 12 November 2019 | |
| Constituency | 23 – Rzeszów |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 March 1967 Toruń |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Political party | Confederation of the Polish Crown |
| Other political affiliations | Confederation Freedom and Independence |
| Spouse | Aleksandra Braun |
| Children | 2[1] |
Grzegorz Michał Braun (born 11 March 1967) is a Polish politician who has served as a member of the Sejm for Rzeszów[note 1] and as Chairman of the Confederation of the Polish Crown (abbreviated in Polish as KKP) since 2019.[2][3][4][5]
Braun's political career began when he announced his candidacy in the 2015 presidential election. He formed the campaign committee "God Bless You!", but received a minimal percentage of votes. His political journey continued with participation in discussions on European and Russian relations and his candidacies in various elections including for the mayoral office of Gdańsk and the European Parliament. Despite electoral setbacks, he was elected to the Sejm at the 2019 parliamentary election. He was reelected at the 2023 parliamentary election. Braun's tenure in politics has been marked by controversy, including inflammatory remarks during the COVID-19 pandemic and endorsements of independent nuclear capabilities for Poland.
Braun holds anti-American,[6] anti-Ukrainian,[6] anti-Protestant,[7] anti-LGBT,[8] antisemitic,[9] and pro-Russian[6] views, aligning himself with Polish ultranationalism[10] and traditionalist Catholicism.[7] While in the Sejm, his activities have been characterised by a series of antisemitic incidents and pro-Russian stances, including referring to Polish Jews as "the enemies of Poland" and participants "in the Satanic cult". In 2023, he stormed a Holocaust lecture, destroyed equipment, and made more derogatory comments about Jews. Later that year he extinguished a Hanukkah menorah in the Sejm, leading to his exclusion from the session and punishment.
Grzegorz Braun was born in Toruń, Poland. He graduated from the University of Wrocław in 1987, and completed postgraduate studies at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Faculty of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia in Katowice in 1993. From 1987 onward he co-organised activities of the Orange Alternative, for which he was oppressed by the communist government of the Polish People's Republic. In 1988 and 1989, he participated in student protests at the University of Wrocław. He was also active in the Polish-Czech-Slovak Solidarity.[11]
Later, he also was a journalist for, inter alia, the Option Right[12] and the Polskie Radio Wrocław. He was involved with the Polish Monarchists Organisation,[13] for which he contributed written works and lectures. He is involved with "Wake-up Call" ("Pobudka"), an organisation that he has founded[14] to strengthen the self-sustainability of faith communities and the internet show Sumienie Narodu.[15]
Braun is a Traditionalist Catholic.[16] He is fiercely critical of Protestantism in Poland and has often debated Protestants in public.[7]
On 24 January 2015, Braun announced his candidacy for the office of the President of Poland. In February 2015 he started campaigning in the United States among Polish immigrants and Americans of Polish descent.[citation needed] On 5 August 2015, he formed his own campaign committee God Bless You! (Szczęść Boże!) [17] and received 13,113 votes amounting to 0.09 per cent of the total cast.[18]
In August 2016, Braun took part in a conference organised by the Center for European Policy Analysis reporting on Russian propaganda in the former Soviet satellite countries. He suggested maintaining a controlled balance between the European Union and Russia.[19][failed verification] National Movement presidential candidate Marian Kowalski criticized Braun for not trusting NATO forces stationed in Poland as a legitimate defence against Russia.[20] Braun calls for Poland to independently maintain and operate nuclear weapons.[21]
In January 2019, Braun announced his candidacy for the mayoral office of Gdańsk. The unexpected early elections were called after the murder of mayor Paweł Adamowicz. Braun's candidacy was endorsed by Janusz Korwin-Mikke and the National Movement. On 4 March 2019, it was determined that Braun received 11.86 per cent of votes and thus conceded to the winner Aleksandra Dulkiewicz who received 82.22 per cent of the votes.[22]
In the 2019 European Parliament election in Poland Braun was the leading candidate for the Confederation Liberty and Independence in the 9th constituency encompassing the territory of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Podkarpackie in Polish). Although his list received 5.89% of the vote, the best result for Confederation in the country, the coalition failed to reach the 5 per cent threshold nationwide and so he did not pick up the seat.[23]
In the 2019 Polish parliamentary election Braun was the leading candidate for the Confederation Liberty and Independence in the Rzeszów Constituency, located in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship. He built on his success from the last election, and his list received 8.25 per cent of the vote, which was again the best result for the Confederation nationwide. This time Braun picked up the seat, as did 10 other candidates from the Confederation.[24]
He was a candidate in the 2020 Confederation presidential primary. He made it into the final round of voting where he lost to Krzysztof Bosak. He immediately endorsed Bosak and said he would campaign for him.[25]
In September 2021, Braun, in a speech in the Sejm, accused the government of increasing suicide rates in children via their actions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. He finished his speech addressing the minister of health, Adam Niedzielski, with the words "You, sir, will hang" (Będziesz pan wisiał).[26] These statements caused Braun to be excluded from further participation in that Sejm's sitting.[27] Niedzielski, along with the Speaker of the Sejm, Elżbieta Witek, filed to press punishable threat charges against Braun, which were later dropped by the prosecutor citing "no signs of a crime". The claimants complained about the decision alleging insufficient investigation and lack of interrogation of the witnesses. In the following weeks Braun broke into the building of the Health Ministry, which, according to Niedzielski, was connected to Braun's words and his ties to the anti-vaccine movement. However, the court sustained the prosecutor's decision and provided an explanation that Braun's words, while inappropriate, were merely criticism, and that Niedzielski's alleged fear would have been irrational.[28]
Braun has been described as pro-Russian.[9] He was interviewed by Sputnik in 2019,[29] and has been praised by the Russian media for his stances on Ukraine since the beginning of the 2022 invasion.[30] He claimed that his party was actively fighting against the "Banderization" and "ukrainization" of Poland by trying to prevent the influx of Ukrainian refugees.[30] On 25 June 2022, Braun took part in a pro-Russian rally; he addressed his speech to Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Joe Biden, proclaiming "President Joe Biden, if you still trust God, let your private interest and the interest of American corporations, that sell weapons to Ukraine, along with entire America, kneel in humility in front of God's almightiness(...)".[31]
On 27 January 2023, Braun destroyed a Christmas tree decorated with baubles themed with Ukrainian, EU and LGBT pride flags located in the building of the Kraków District Court. He said that he had staged a "parliamentary intervention".[32][33][34]
On 30 May 2023, Braun disrupted a lecture on the Holocaust by the historian Jan Grabowski at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw by invading the room and destroying the event's microphone and speakers. Braun has been quoted accusing Jews of being "the enemies of Poland" and alleging their desire to undertake a "hostile takeover" of Polish territory and to place ethnic Poles in reservations.[35][36][37] Braun has also claimed there exists a plan to turn Poland into a "Jewish state".[9]
On 12 December 2023, during the first session of the 10th term of Sejm, he put out a Hanukkah menorah by spraying it with a fire extinguisher, saying that "The people participating in the Satanic cult should be ashamed".[38][39] Security guards ordered the area to be evacuated because of the resultant white cloud of aerosol.[40] He was excluded from the ongoing session of the Sejm, and punished by withholding his deputy allowance for six months. The Speaker of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, announced that a criminal complaint will be filed with prosecutors.[40][41]
Braun's actions and statements have led to criticism from within his own party. Sławomir Mentzen, one of the leaders of the Confederation party, condemned Braun's actions, stating his intent to take further steps in addressing the situation.[35] Additionally, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, Archbishop of Łódź, said he was "ashamed and I apologise to the whole Jewish community in Poland" following the incident.[42] Braun has denied having racist motives and described his actions as a response to what he perceives as "Satanic, Talmudist triumphalism" of Jewish holidays.[35]
On 17 January 2024, the Sejm voted to lift Braun's immunity from criminal prosecution in relation to his attack on the Hanukkah menorah. Prosecutors previously said that they intended to charge him with seven counts also included earlier incidents of alleged aggression against a former health minister and public property. If convicted, he faces up to five years' imprisonment.[43]
