Grzegorz Braun

Grzegorz Michał Braun (born 11 March 1967) is a Polish politician who has served as a member of the Sejm for Rzeszów and as Chairman of the Confederation of the Polish Crown (abbreviated in Polish as KKP) since 2019.

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 onward 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.

Later, he also was a journalist for, inter alia, the Option Right and the Polskie Radio Wrocław.

He was involved with the Polish Monarchists Organisation, 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.

Braun is a Traditionalist Catholic.

He is fiercely critical of Protestantism in Poland and has often debated Protestants in public.

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 votes.

His political journey continued with 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.

On 24 January 2015, Braun announced his candidacy for the office of the President of Poland.

In February 2015 he started campaigning in the United States among Polish immigrants and Americans of Polish descent.

On 5 August 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 August 2016, Braun took part in a conference organised by the Center for European Policy Analysis reporting on Russian propaganda in the former Soviet satellite countries.

He suggested maintaining a controlled balance between the European Union and Russia.

National Movement presidential candidate Marian Kowalski criticized Braun for not trusting NATO forces stationed in Poland as a legitimate defence against Russia.

Braun calls for Poland to independently maintain and operate nuclear weapons.

Despite electoral setbacks, he was elected to the Sejm at the 2019 parliamentary election.

He was reelected 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 holds anti-American, anti-Ukrainian, anti-Protestant, anti-LGBT, antisemitic, and pro-Russian views, aligning himself with Polish ultranationalism and traditionalist Catholicism.

While in the Sejm, his activities have been characterised by a series of antisemitic incidents and pro-Russian stances, including referring to Polish Jews as "the enemies of Poland" and participants "in the Satanic cult".

In 2023, he stormed a Holocaust lecture, destroyed equipment, and made more derogatory comments about Jews.

Later that year he extinguished a Hanukkah menorah in the Sejm, leading to his exclusion from the session and punishment.

Grzegorz Braun was born in Toruń, Poland.

In January 2019, Braun announced his candidacy for the mayoral office of Gdańsk.

The unexpected early elections were 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 (Podkarpackie in Polish).

Although his list received 5.89% 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.