Far-right Polish lawmaker Grzegorz Braun lit the menorah in parliament

A far-right Polish lawmaker on Tuesday used a fire extinguisher to extinguish candles on a Hanukkah menorah placed in the parliament lobby.

“This should never have happened,” Szymon Holownia told reporters after expelling lawmaker Grzegorz Braun.

A nine-branched candelabrum ceremony was held at the Polish Parliament to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Lights, featuring rabbis and a Jewish band.

Far-right Polish lawmaker Grzegorz Braun, second from left, after using a fire extinguisher to extinguish Hanukkah candles at the parliament in Warsaw, Poland, on December 12, 2023.

Slawomir Kaminski/Agencja Wyborcza.pl/REUTERS


Poland’s TVN24 showed video of people using a red fire extinguisher to extinguish candles, filling the area with smoke and fog from the device. Parliamentary proceedings were suspended.

“This should never have happened,” Holonia told reporters after ordering Brown to leave the session and calling for an investigation into the lawmakers’ actions.

Poland’s newly elected prime minister, Donald Tusk, said it was a shame and something like this should never happen again. Tusk, a pro-EU centrist, was elected on Monday, marking a reversal for Poland after years of conservative leadership. Tusk delivered his opening speech to parliament on Tuesday before Brown acted.

Brown, a pro-Russian member of the Confederation Party, had previously claimed there was a plot to turn Poland into a “Jewish state”.

Sectarianism is on the rise Among Europe and America War between Israel and HamasIt was triggered by an unprecedented terrorist attack by a Palestinian militant group on October 7.

“It won’t happen again, it’s a shame,” Tusk said as he waited for parliament to approve his new pro-EU government, delaying a referendum amid chaos sparked by the incident, which all parties except him condemned. For Brown’s Confederacy.

“Shame. A member of the Polish parliament did this. Minutes after we celebrated Hanukkah there,” Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Yaakov Livne, posted a video of the stunt on social media.

After hours of delays, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s new government won a confidence vote in parliament, the Associated Press reported. Tusk and his cabinet are expected to be formally sworn in on Wednesday morning.

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