Grzegorz Michał Braun (born 11 March 1967) is a Polish far-right politician and filmmaker. He was a member of the Sejm for Rzeszów from 2019 to 2024 and has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Lesser Poland and Świętokrzyskie since 2024. He has been the chairman of the Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP) since 2019.
Born in Toruń, 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 the vote. His political journey continued with his 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 re-elected 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 has broadly been described as a nationalist and far-right, and his views as anti-American, anti-Ukrainian, antisemitic, anti-Zionist, and anti-LGBTQ. His tenure in the Sejm was characterised by numerous antisemitic incidents. In 2023 he invaded a Holocaust lecture, destroyed equipment and made derogatory comments about Jews. Later that year, he put out a Hanukkah menorah in the Sejm using a fire extinguisher, leading to his exclusion from the session. In May 2025, the European Parliament lifted his immunity. In July 2025, he was charged with seven criminal offences stemming from multiple incidents occurring between 2022 and 2023, including assault. Later that month, Braun publicly denied that the Nazis used gas chambers at Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War.
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Biography
Grzegorz Michał Braun was born in Toruń in the Polish People's Republic on 11 March 1967. He is the son of Kazimierz Braun, a theatre-director and writer. According to Braun's sister Monika Braun, their family immigrated to what is now Lviv, Ukraine, from Austria in the 18th century. Kazimierz Braun denies that the family has any Jewish heritage. His uncle, Juliusz Braun, was president of Telewizja Polska and was chief of the National Broadcasting Council.
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 onwards 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.
He was a member of the editorial board of the Fronda magazine from 1990 to 1994. Later, he also was a journalist for the Option Right, as well as Polskie Radio Wrocław. He was involved with the Polish Monarchists Organisation (Polish: Organizacja Monarchistów Polskich), for which he contributed written works and lectures. He is involved with "Wake-up Call" ("Pobudka"), an organisation that he has founded to strengthen the self-sustainability of faith communities, and the internet show Sumienie Narodu.
In 2005 Braun released a documentary film about the alleged collaboration between Solidarity-leader and later President of Poland Lech Wałęsa and the Ministry of Public Security (SB), the secret police of the Polish People's Republic. Wałęsa filed a lawsuit against Braun, and Braun filed a countersuit for defamation. A hearing was held, and the court dismissed both claims.
Political career
In 2012, Braun called for the execution by firing squad of journalists from Gazeta Wyborcza and TVN, which led to an official investigation. In 2023 the Prosecutor's Office dismissed the case.
In, 2015 he formed his own campaign committee, God Bless You! (Szczęść Boże!), and received 13,113 votes amounting to 0.09 per cent of the total cast.
In January 2019 Braun announced his candidacy for the mayoral office of Gdańsk. The election was 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.
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. Although his list received 5.89 per cent 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.
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.
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.
On 27 January 2023 Braun destroyed a Christmas tree decorated with baubles themed with Ukrainian, EU and LGBTQ pride flags located in the building of the Kraków District Court. He said that he had staged a "parliamentary intervention".
Views
Braun is a Traditionalist Catholic. He begins each of his speeches with the words "God bless you". He is fiercely critical of Protestantism in Poland and has often debated Protestants in public. Braun is a monarchist and is a critic of democracy. He advocates for the formal recognition of Jesus as the king of Poland.
Braun has criticized foreign influence in Poland, calling it a "Russo-German condominium under a Jewish-American trusteeship". He has called the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews a "propaganda-disinformation centre".
Braun repeatedly criticized the Law and Justice party, calling their MPs "the followers of Gog and Magog, destroyers of Polish tradition and Latin civilization" and "a reenactment group of Sanation".
Braun calls for Poland to independently maintain and operate nuclear weapons.
Braun praised vigilante groups, organized by football hooligans, that assaulted and harassed ethnic minorities in Przemyśl. One group assaulted three Indians in Przemyśl with baseball bats and bottles, leaving one hospitalised. The police denied reports of a spike in crime caused by migrants from Ukraine.
Foreign policy
Braun has been described as pro-Russian, and was interviewed by Russian-state owned news agency Sputnik in 2019. He was praised by the Russian media for his stances on Ukraine since the beginning of the 2022 invasion.
In a 2018 article titled "Ukrainian spectres and delusions" (Polish: Ukraińskie upiory i urojenia), Braun wrote, "Ukraine is a fiction. And it is a dangerous fiction. The fiction of an independent state as a civilised partner and the fiction of a sovereign nation, with which we can finally normalise neighbourly relations."
On 24 February 2022, Braun posted a tweet demanding Poland to not open its borders to Ukrainian refugees. He was the only MP who voted against a resolution in the Sejm condemning the invasion of Ukraine and calling upon NATO and the European Union to provide support to Ukraine. He was interviewed by Sputnik again less than a month after the invasion, in which he said that Russia is not the sole instigator of the Russo-Ukrainian War and Ukrainians would be held accountable for their "banderism".
Braun opposes Polish aid to Ukrainian refugees. He launched a campaign titled "Stop the Ukrainization of Poland", which was intended to dissuade the public from supporting the refugees by "exaggerating the potential cultural impact of absorbing so many Ukrainians and emphasizing the historical differences between the two nations". He demanded that the government remove the right of Ukrainian citizens to apply for a temporary residency permit and end further Ukrainian immigration to prevent a major shift in Poland's demographics. He claimed that his party was actively fighting against the "banderization" and "Ukrainization" of Poland by trying to prevent the influx of Ukrainian refugees. Paulina Nodzyńska, writing for Gazeta Wyborcza, said that Braun was at the "forefront" of Ukrainophobic internet propaganda.
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(...)". During a debate in the European Parliament (EP), Braun stated that the military aid to Ukraine is not helping the Ukrainian people, but only prolonging the war, after which his microphone was cut off. He shouted "thieves, thieves!" during a vote on using frozen Russian assets to assist Ukraine financially. In the Sejm, Braun blamed Ukraine for the war and claimed that it was caused by a discriminatory language law towards ethnic Russians.
Jews and Israel
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, an allegory for Indian reservations. He has also claimed there exists a plan to turn Poland into a "Jewish state", and delivered a speech to his supporters in which he said "us non-Jews have only one choice: to serve like animals, like cattle…This is a teaching spread for 2,000 years [by Jews], since the manger and the cross of Christ were rejected ... Do you want a future for your children that is shared by children in Gaza today? Do you want such a fate for Polish children? A fate of slaves, subhumans, at the mercy of the Jewish Übermensch?"
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 microphone and speakers. He told the director of the institute, Milos Reznik, that "[a] German in Warsaw is not going to tell me I shouldn't damage something. Get out of Warsaw, now!" after he was criticized by him for destroying the institute's property. Braun refused to leave when instructed to do so by police, using his immunity from prosecution as a member of European Parliament.
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. Additionally, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, Archbishop of Łódź, said, "I am ashamed and I apologise to the whole Jewish community in Poland" following the incident. Braun has denied having racist motives and described his actions as a response to what he perceives as "Satanic, Talmudist triumphalism" of Jewish holidays.
On 12 December 2023, during the first session of the 10th term of the Sejm, Braun put out a Hanukkah menorah with a fire extinguisher, saying that "The people participating in the Satanic cult should be ashamed". Security guards ordered the area to be evacuated because of the resultant white cloud of aerosol. A woman was taken to a hospital due to respiratory issues caused by the resultant fumes. He was excluded from the ongoing session of the Sejm, and punished by having his parliamentary allowance withheld for six months.
According to a report released by the "Never Again" Association, Braun, referring to the incident, said, "At this time next year, I will be on the lookout for all those who believe that it is necessary to professionally extinguish fires started in public spaces. I applaud all forms of protest and attempts to put an end to such activities," in a video published by journalist Leszek Szymowski's YouTube channel.
Iran
In March 2026, after the assassination of Ali Khamenei, Braun signed a condolence book at Iran's embassy in Warsaw.
Homosexuality
Braun supports the penalisation of homosexual activity. During an interview, Braun equated homosexuality with pedophilia, and proposed flagellation as a possible punishment. In another interview, Braun claimed that homosexual sex is "very risky", "leads to premature death", and "increases the risk of all sorts of diseases".
During a debate in the European Parliament about a Hungarian law banning the discussion of homosexuality and gender transition in schools, Braun said that there are three genders: "men, women, and people with personality disorders". After he was admonished by Vice President Katarina Barley, he said, "Sodomites are, I believe, the missing proletariat in the world revolution that you all very much need to carry out your projects. Keep yourselves, perverts, far away from our children." After this, Braun's microphone was turned off and he left the podium. For a period of two days, he was excluded from speeches and his parliamentary allowance (€350 a day) was withheld.
On 18 March 2025, Braun vandalised a public exhibition in the old town market square in Opole titled "There’s more of us! Provoke equality with us" by Tęczowe Opole (lit. 'Rainbow Opole'), a local LGBTQ organisation, depicting the history of equality marches in the city. He wrote "stop pervert propaganda" in black spray paint on the display boards. He reported the exhibition to the police, claiming that it violated Article 140 of the Code on Petty Offenses, which prohibits "indecent behaviour" in public. In response, Opole mayor Arkadiusz Wiśniewski announced the cancellation of Braun's contract for renting a hall in the Exhibition and Congress Centre for a campaign event, because "we cannot accept evil and discrimination". He said that the city would seek damages of 35,000zł (US$8326.06) from Braun.
On 11 June 2025, Braun destroyed a LGBT exhibition in the Sejm. The exhibition, belonging to Tęczowe Opole, was composed of display boards showing the history of equality marches in the Opole region, which were thrown on the floor, bent, and trampled upon by Braun. He was escorted out of the building by security. As a result of this, on 14 June 2025, Braun was barred from entering the Sejm and Senate Complex. The Marshal of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, said that "there is no place for hooligans in the Sejm". He also said that as a result of the incident, he authorised the Marshal Guard to use physical force against people with legal immunity that are destroying property. The Deputy Marshal of the Sejm, Krzysztof Bosak, condemned both Braun's behaviour, which he called "inconsistent with the regulations of the Sejm", and the exhibition, which he said was "in line with negative ideological trends". Minister for Equality Katarzyna Kotula said that she had filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office. In March 2026, the European Parliament voted to waive Braun's immunity in connection with criminal proceedings concerning this incident.
COVID and vaccines
Braun is one of the main supporters of the anti-vaccine movement in Polish politics.
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 will hang" (Będziesz pan wisiał). These statements caused Braun to be excluded from further participation in that Sejm's sitting. 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.
A month later, Braun was fined 20,000zł (US$5181.35) for refusing to wear a face mask in the Sejm during the COVID-19 pandemic; he maintains that his actions were "consistent with Polish law". He had previously spoken at an anti-mask protest in Bydgoszcz in 2020, where he compared the mask mandate to the Nazis forcing Jews to wear armbands as a precursor to sending them to ghettos and then to extermination camps.
