Far-right Confederation co-leader to continue as deputy Sejm speaker
Krzysztof Bosak, an MP and co-leader of Poland's far-right Confederation Party, will continue as deputy speaker of the Sejm, after the lower house of parliament rejected a motion to dismiss him from the post.
In the vote on Wednesday, 32 MPs voted for his dismissal and 77 against while 152 abstained. A total of 196 MPs did not take part in the vote.
The Left party had filed a motion to dismiss Bosak in mid-December owing to a scandal involving his party colleague, Grzegorz Braun.
During a ceremony on December 12 in the parliament building to mark the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, Braun used a fire extinguisher on a menorah to put out its candles.
He then appeared at the Sejm podium while Bosak was chairing proceedings.
The Left later said in its motion that Bosak had allowed Braun to deliver an anti-Semitic speech in which he called the Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony "racist."
But, also on Wednesday, the Sejm waived the parliamentary immunity of Braun, who faces a number of criminal charges relating to the attack on the menorah.
A motion to deprive Braun of his parliamentary immunity had been filed with the lower house of parliament by a district prosecutor in Warsaw, who said that the charges included property damage, violation of bodily integrity and desecration of a religious object.
Braun described the charges as "clear insinuations and untrue statements which are incompatible with the facts." (PAP)
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