WARSAW (Reuters) – Hanukkah candles in Poland’s parliament were lit again on Thursday, after a far-right lawmaker used a fire extinguisher to put them out earlier in the week in an incident that caused outrage.
On Tuesday, Grzegorz Braun of the Confederation party took a fire extinguisher from a wall in the lobby of the parliament and walked over to the Hanukkah candles, creating a cloud of white powder that forced security guards to rush those present, including children, out of the area.
The candles had been lit as part of an annual celebration of the Jewish holiday.
Afterwards, Braun took to the podium in the chamber, where lawmakers had been debating a policy speech by newly appointed Prime Minister Donald Tusk, describing Hanukkah as “satanic” and saying he was restoring “normality”.
On Thursday, as the candles were relit, onlookers including President Andrzej Duda and a crowd of lawmakers including the speakers of the two houses of parliament, Szymon Holownia and Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, heard that tolerance had won.
“In Polish and Jewish history, we will always light the candles again,” said Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich. “You cannot extinguish us because we stand together.”
Rabbi Sholem Ber Stambler of Chabad House Warsaw said he had seen an “enormous wave of tolerance” over the past two days.
As he sang a Hanukkah song, Ber Stambler then began to light the candles before others joined in.
Parliament speaker Holownia excluded Braun, who is known for his pro-Russian and anti-European Union views, from the sitting on Tuesday and informed prosecutors about his actions.
Braun will also lose half of his salary for three months and all parliamentary expenses for six months as a punishment.
The Confederation party, which tried to focus mainly on economic issues and criticism of the extent of Poland’s support for Ukraine during its campaign for October elections, has suspended Braun.
However, the party’s co-leader Krzysztof Bosak is facing calls that he be dismissed from his position as deputy speaker after he failed to stop Braun addressing the chamber following the incident.
The New Left party have submitted a motion that he should be fired from the role.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
