Members of the European Parliament voted Tuesday to lift parliamentary immunity for far-right MEP Grzegorz Braun, who now faces Holocaust-denial charges in Poland.
Braun, leader of the ultranationalist Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP) party, is accused of denying the genocidal crimes committed by Nazi Germany at Auschwitz during a public debate in Warsaw in September 2025.
He was already accused in a separate case after a July 2025 radio interview in which he said that “Auschwitz, with its gas chambers is, unfortunately, a fake.” That offense can carry up to three years in prison. The European Parliament had waived Braun’s immunity for that episode last March, and Polish prosecutors later pressed charges.
The Strasbourg vote on Tuesday clears the way for Polish authorities to pursue the additional case — a step critics say risks being used as a political tool against a vocal nationalist who has embarrassed mainstream politicians.
Braun surprised many by finishing fourth in Poland’s 2025 presidential election with 6.3% of the vote. His KKP party is polling around 8% ahead of next year’s parliamentary contest, putting it in a potential kingmaker position between the right-wing Law and Justice and Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition.
The European Parliament has repeatedly lifted Braun’s immunity over a string of allegations, including an assault on a doctor and an incident in which he reportedly extinguished the candles of a menorah during a Hanukkah celebration.
In a post on X after Tuesday’s vote, Braun quipped that he had lost count of how many times his immunity had been removed. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
