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Polish far-right leader Sławomir Mentzen, who finished third in last year’s presidential election, was reportedly held for hours at a London airport before being released to continue a family visit to the UK.
Mentzen claims he was detained because the British authorities wrongly believed he was planning to speak at a political event. He accused the UK of being a “totalitarian state” that implements “pre-emptive political censorship”.
“This crumbling state has no problem with being colonised by Indians and Arabs, but it does have a problem with me possibly wanting to say something to someone here,” he declared.
Zostałem dziś zatrzymany na ponad trzy godziny na lotnisku w Londynie, ponieważ Brytyjczycy bali się, że będę przemawiał na jakimś spotkaniu politycznym, na które nawet się nie wybierałem.
To upadające państwo nie ma problemu z tym, że jest kolonizowane przez Hindusów i Arabów,…
— Sławomir Mentzen (@SlawomirMentzen) May 8, 2026
Mentzen is the leader of a far-right libertarian party called New Hope (Nowa Nadzieja), which in turn is part of the broader far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) alliance that has 16 seats in Poland’s parliament.
Mentzen himself is an MP. Last year, he was also Confederation’s candidate in Poland’s presidential elections, finishing third with 14.8% of the vote. Confederation is also currently running third in the polls, with support of around 13%, ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.
Last month, during a speech in parliament, another Confederation MP, Konrad Berkowicz, displayed an Israeli flag in which the Star of David had been replaced by a Nazi swastika. He accused Israel of being “the new Third Reich”, a message repeated by Mentzen himself when he shared a video of Berkowicz’s speech.
A far-right MP displayed an Israeli flag in which the Star of David had been replaced with a Nazi swastika during a speech in Poland’s parliament in which he accused Israel of being the “new Third Reich” and of committing genocide in Gaza https://t.co/jcWPZFG9N1
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 14, 2026
Late on Friday afternoon, Mentzen announced on social media that he had been held for over three hours at a London airport after flying into the city with his wife and their children.
He claimed to have been told by an officer that he had been detained due to being flagged by an unnamed organisation. He was asked the reasons for his visit, where he would be staying, and if he was planning to attend and speak at any events.
Mentzen said he was eventually released with no explanation as to why he had been detained nor which organisation had reported him. However, he believes it is clear he was held because of his political views.
“Only certain views are censored,” declared Mentzen. “If I were an Islamic fundamentalist publicly demanding that gays be thrown from towers, that disobedient women’s faces be burned with acid, and that Israel be destroyed, I wouldn’t have a problem. If I were a rabbi praising genocide in Gaza, no one would have detained me either.”
“If I’d simply rowed in here on a dinghy with some Africans, I wouldn’t have had a problem getting in. Illegal immigrants, criminals and basically anyone who wants to come is welcome here. That’s fine by them. What’s not fine is a Polish politician who wanted to spend the weekend with his family in London.”
“Of course, every country should have the freedom to decide whom it wants to host,” Mentzen added. “I don’t want immigrants from savage countries in Poland, I don’t want murderers and rapists. The British don’t want people with my views.”
“We cannot allow Ukrainians” – Poland’s largest immigrant group – “to have representation in parliament,” warns far-right leader Sławomir Mentzen.
His remarks come amid discussion over toughening the criteria for foreigners to obtain Polish citizenship https://t.co/y86IbrfpcT
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 7, 2025
A few hours later, Metzen posted a further message in which he thanked Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, and consul in London, Agnieszka Fabryczewska, for “promising to forward questions and requests for clarification to the British authorities”.
Sikorski, who is a deputy leader of Poland’s main ruling party, the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), and a political opponent of Mentzen, shared Mentzen’s post on his own account on X.
Mentzen also thanked two senior aides to opposition-aligned President Karol Nawrocki, who has good relations with Confederation, for “taking an interest in the matter and for their assurance of appropriate action on the part of the office of the President”.
Bardzo dziękuję szefowi MSZ Radosławowi Sikorskiemu i Pani konsul Agnieszce Fabryczewskiej za kontakt oraz obietnicę wysłania pytań i próśb o wyjaśnienia do brytyjskich instytucji.
Dziękuję też ministrom Marcinowi Przydaczowi i Adamowi Andruszkiewiczowi za zainteresowanie się…
— Sławomir Mentzen (@SlawomirMentzen) May 8, 2026
Earlier, the head of the president’s Office of International Policy (BPM), Marcin Przydacz, had criticised Mentzen’s detention and pledged to raise the issue with the British authorities.
There has so far been no comment on the incident from the British authorities. However, the UK has previously sought to prevent other Polish far-right figures from entering the country.
In 2022, Mentzen’s predecessor as leader of New Hope, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, was prevented from boarding a flight to the UK. Previously, Jacek Międlar, a former priest and far-right figure, was banned from entering the UK. In 2021, a prominent right-wing journalist, Rafał Ziemkiewicz, was also refused entry.
Senior foreign policy aide to Poland’s president says he will raise his concerns with British authorities regarding the brief detention of Poland’s Konfederacja party leader Mentzen at a London airport earlier today; says incident harms Britain’s standing in Polish society. https://t.co/YY0KiwFhXg
— Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) May 8, 2026
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: CzarneckiRadek/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 4.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.