Speaker wants to know if far-right MP has firearms license
The speaker of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, has said he asked the police to check if Grzegorz Braun, a senior member of the far-right Confederation party, who disrupted a Hanukkah ceremony in the Polish parliament last December, has a firearms license.
Szymon Holownia told reporters on Friday that "after the shameful incident" of Braun extinguishing the candles of a menorah in the Sejm, he had received information from the Parliamentary Guard "that not during his term of office, but earlier, MP Braun had asked the Parliamentary Guard whether an MP could deposit personal weapons in the Sejm."
He said that having heard that he turned to the relevant police commander "because we suspect that Grzegorz Braun may have a firearms permit and we expect verification of the grounds for issuing this permit."
Holownia added that the move was taken "out of caution" but also because he would like "to have the feeling that MPs do not bring weapons into the Sejm premises, as one cannot feel threatened here."
"If we are dealing with a situation in which we know that an MP does not undergo a weapon search when entering the building (of the Sejm), a red light turns on in my head," he went on. (PAP)
mr/md/mf
