Prosecutors indict MEP Grzegorz Braun over flag thefts and LGBT exhibition damage

The indictment

Prosecutors at the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office have sent an indictment against Grzegorz Braun, a member of the European Parliament, to court on four counts. The office's spokesman, Piotr Antoni Skiba, announced the step in a statement on 4 November 2026. The first count concerns a Ukrainian flag taken from the balcony of the town hall in Biała Podlaska on 30 April 2025. The second covers an EU flag removed from the lobby of the then Ministry of Industry in Katowice on 6 May 2025. The third is the destruction of ten panels of an exhibition on LGBT people in the main lobby of the Sejm on 11 June 2025.

The fourth count is defamation through the mass media of the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews and other organisers of the "Żonkile" action, which commemorates the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Prosecutors tie it to a presidential debate organised by Super Express on 28 April 2025, where Braun used the phrase 'Jewish daffodil, a sign of shame and subordination'. The prosecutor brought this charge as a public prosecution, judging that the public interest required it.

Five co-accused

Five other people are charged in the case. Roman Fritz, a member of parliament for the Confederation of the Polish Crown, is accused of complicity in the theft of the EU flag in Katowice. Two of the five, Fritz among them, are charged with joint perpetration of the flag thefts. The other three face charges of aiding the theft of the Ukrainian flag in Biała Podlaska, and their alleged help included supplying and positioning a ladder.

Earlier trial and medical certificate

Braun is already on trial before the Warsaw Praga-Południe District Court in a separate case, brought on an earlier indictment. That court cancelled hearings set for 30 October and 6 November 2026 because of a medical certificate. Prosecutors say recordings show that on the evening of 30 October Braun spent several hours at a demonstration in front of the Constitutional Tribunal. The prosecutor has asked the court to check the reliability of the certificate.

Reaction

Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek wrote about the indictment, listing the flag thefts, the damage to the LGBT exhibition and the defamation of the "Żonkile" organisers and the Polin museum. He summed up the case in a single line:

“Grzegorz Braun will stand trial.”

Key dates

The charges span a sequence of events from the April 2025 debate to the indictment announced on 4 November 2026. The three incidents took place between 30 April and 11 June 2025, while the prosecutor's recordings concern the evening of 30 October 2026.