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A far-right Polish MP has provoked outrage after he sued a fire extinguisher on a menorah during a Jewish community event in the country’s parliament.
Grzegorz Braun of the Confederation party took the equipment from the wall of the parliamentary lobby and used it to put out the candles, forcing security to evacuate people from the room.
Taking to the podium in the chamber, he then described Hanukkah as ‘satanic’ and said he was restoring ‘normality’.
Members of Poland’s Jewish community, including children, had gathered in the building – known as the Sejm – at the invitation of speaker Szymon Holownia.
Footage from the scene shows several of those present covered in white powder from the extinguisher.
Magdalena Gudzinska-Adamczyk, one of the ceremony’s attendees, was shown challenging Mr Braun as he sprayed the menorah.
Speaking to journalists afterwards, she said: ‘This is my religious symbol, I have the right to defend it because we live in a free, democratic country.’
With her face covered in white powder, she told TVN24: ‘I feel very short of breath and have trouble speaking.
‘I have stopped feeling safe in this country.’
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Mr Braun has now been prevented from sitting in parliament by Mr Holownia, ahead of a confidence vote in newly appointed prime minister Donald Tusk.
The speaker said prosecutors would be informed of Mr Braun’s actions, and he would lose half of his salary for three months and all parliamentary expenses for six months.
Michael Schudrich, the chief rabbi of Poland, said he was ’embarrassed’ by the MP’s behaviour and that he did not believe it represented the views of the country.
‘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.’
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