European Parliament sanctions Polish MEP Braun
The European Parliament has barred Polish extreme-right MEP Grzegorz Braun from attending meetings of its security and defence committee for 20 days and stripped him of his daily allowance for two days over insulting remarks directed at the EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas.
The sanctions, announced by European Parliament President Roberta Metsola on Monday, relate to Braun's comments during a March meeting of the Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE), attended by Kallas in her capacity as the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
During the meeting, Braun described Kallas's post as unnecessary, claimed that "Jews, Israel and the Jewish diaspora all over" were the aggressors in the Middle East conflict and told her: "You are merely the silencer at the end of the gun barrel."
He accused Kallas of trying to silence him and others "for the truth to be spoken," saying: "this is everything you do here."
SEDE chair David McAllister condemned the remarks as antisemitic.
Opening a plenary session in Strasbourg on Monday, Metsola said Braun's conduct had undermined the dignity and reputation of the Parliament and cited his "repeated failure" to respect standards of conduct.
It is the latest disciplinary measure imposed on Braun, who was previously sanctioned over remarks about LGBTQI people and for disrupting a minute's silence commemorating Holocaust victims. (PAP)
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