Grzegorz Braun, an MEP and leader of the right-wing Polish Crown party, visited the Iranian Embassy in Warsaw and signed the book of condolence for Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader killed on the first day of the strikes on Iran made by the US and Israel.
Braun, who finished fourth in the presidential election last year, polling just over six per cent and whose party is currently polling between seven per cent and 11 per cent in opinion surveys, wrote: “God bless the Iranian nation”.
He said he condemned the “shameful, cowardly and insidious murder of your leader, which was a manifestation of civilisational and personal savagery on the part of those who committed such an act”.
Braun expressed solidarity with the Iranian nation and declared it had the right to sovereignty just as with Poland.
“The independence of states, sovereignty and the security of free nations should be dear to all, including us Poles. Despite our significant differences, our countries are united by many universal principles.
“And in this spirit, I raise the slogan: Tehran and Warsaw united in a common cause!,” he said.
Braun has been a consistent opponent of Israel, condemning that country’s actions in Gaza.
During Holocaust Day last year he disrupted a European Parliamentary commemoration.
He views the US as a tool of Jewish influence and has said that “the American empire is a political and military tool of Jewish blackmail against Poland”.
Braun has been highly critical of alleged “Jewish influence” over Polish politics and public life. Last year he went on record doubting the existence of the gas chambers in the Auschwitz death camp, comments for which he is facing an indictment.
He is currently also facing charges for putting out a Hanukkah menorah with a fire extinguisher in the Polish Parliament. In addition, he is facing charges for his attempt to apprehend a doctor who had performed a controversial termination of pregnancy on a woman in the ninth month of her pregnancy.
He advocates Poland leaving the European Union and the stopping of what he alleges is “the Ukrainisation of Poland” via mass migration.
Braun has also argued that Poland needs to “normalise” its relations with Russia and has blamed the West for the war in Ukraine.
The political line he advocates is rejected by both the other parties of the Right – the Conservatives (PiS) and also the Confederation Party from which Braun split last year.
The Confederation Party’s line on the war in Iran is that it does not mourn the death of Khamenei and does not support either side of the Iran-Israel conflict.
The opposition PiS aligned-President Karol Nawrocki, an ally of US President Donald Trump, has backed the US Iranian action and expressed satisfaction that “the menacing Iranian regime, which armed Russia in its aggression against Ukraine and threatened other states in the Middle East, is being dismantled before our eyes”.
PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński has repeatedly gone on the record saying that he cannot envisage his party entering into a governing coalition with Braun’s party.
According to current polling, though, a right-wing majority in parliament would have to include that party for a majority government to be formed.
