STRASBOURG: The European Parliament removed Polish lawmaker Ryszard Czarnecki as the assembly's vice president on Wednesday after he insulted a fellow Polish MEP by comparing her to a Nazi collaborator. But Jaroslaw Kaczynski, whose populism was once held in check by his brother, shaped this new legislation in ways that are politically favourable to the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), which he leads, by effectively taking centrist voters hostage. Read more: Polish president signs controversial bill that bans attributing nation to Holocaust crimes

Last month Czarnecki called Roza Thun, a European Parliament lawmaker from Poland’s opposition Civic Platform party, a “shmaltsovnik,” a derogatory term for the Poles who blackmailed Jews, or Poles hiding Jews, during the Nazi German occupation of Poland.
The European Parliament votes 447–196 to dismiss Ryszard Czarnecki (PiS) as one of its 14 vice-presidents, for calling fellow Polish parliamentarian Róża Thun (Civic Platform) a "szmalcownik" (meaning Nazi collaborator). It is the first time that the parliament invokes the powers of Article 21 of the Treaty on European Union to dismiss a senior office holder. Czarnecki remains a Member of the European Parliament.