Far-right Polish lawmaker uses fire extinguisher on Hanukkah candles in parliament

WARSAW (Reuters) – A far-right Polish lawmaker used a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles in the country’s parliament, leading the speaker to exclude him from the sitting and provoking outrage.

Footage posted on the website of private broadcaster TVN24 showed Grzegorz Braun of the Confederation take the extinguisher before walking across the lobby of the parliament to where the candles were, creating a white cloud and forcing security guards to rush people out of the area.

Television footage showed people in the vicinity covered in powder from the extinguisher.

He then took to the podium in the chamber where he described the Hanukkah as “satanic” and said he was restoring “normality”.

Asked just after the incident if he was ashamed, Braun replied: “Those who take part in acts of Satanic worship should be ashamed.”

Speaker Szymon Holownia excluded him from the sitting and said he would inform prosecutors about his actions.

Braun left the chamber, shaking hands with other far-right lawmakers.

“There will be no tolerance for racism, xenophobia, antisemitism … as long as I am the speaker of parliament,” Holownia told reporters.

Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told Reuters by telephone that Braun’s actions were not representative of the country and that he was “embarrassed” by them.

“Someone extinguished the Hanukkah candles and a few minutes later we relit them,” he said. “For thousands of years our enemies have been trying to extinguish us, from the time of the Maccabees right through 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) apologise to the entire Jewish community in Poland,” he wrote.

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