Far-Right EU Lawmakers Form Coalition

[Joanne98]

Far-Right EU Lawmakers Form Coalition
By JAN SLIVA
Associated Press Writer

January 14, 2007, 5:54 PM EST

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- A new far-right faction in the European Parliament will provide a platform for the movement to push some of its most important goals: limiting immigration and resisting the EU's drive for closer integration.

The formation of the Identity, Sovereignty and Tradition group, announced last week, brings together some big names from the fringes of European politics. Most prominent among them is France's Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is again running for president on a nationalist platform that plays on concerns about immigration, globalization and French sovereignty within the European Union.

Another standout in the first far-right faction in the European Parliament in more than a decade, is Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Italy's Fascist dictator.

Across Europe, nationalist parties have made gains in recent years in countries like Austria, Slovakia and Germany. In Belgium, the Flemish Interest Party is the strongest party in the country's Dutch-speaking north.

The far-right has a steady following in France, where Le Pen shocked the country -- and the continent -- when he beat the more mainstream Socialist candidate to move to the second round of the presidential election in 2002. In the current election, he is polling around 12 percent.

One of the group's central goals is to impose strict limits on immigration by playing on fears of job loss and a growing debate about the integration of Muslims, who make up a significant portion of immigrants to Europe, into Western societies.

The faction, to be officially established this week at a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, also seeks to reduce the influence of the EU, including opposing the adoption of a European constitution and any expansion of the bloc.

The faction's formation was only possible with the arrival of several right-wing lawmakers from Romania and Bulgaria, who joined the EU on Jan. 1.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-eu-far-right,0,3667020.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[DemExpat]

1. According to a Dutch newsite they are being boycotted by all of the EU

parties and are expected to fall apart before too long.
Sorry, but not in English:
http://www.ad.nl/buitenland/article990336.ece

DemEx

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Just what Europe needs

An organized rightwing organization operating throughout the EU.

[mogthemonk]

3. The irony of this is

they were adamantly opposed to the two new countries joining the EU this year but these two countries also brought with them enough like minded EU members of parliament to enable them to become a recognised faction!

[Oak2004]

4. Slightly off topic, but LePen's group is being virtual-picketed in

Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com) (a 3-D virtual world).

FN has a presence there as of a few weeks ago, and shortly afterward an "anti fnsl" group was formed. Since FN set itself up initially across the street from me in SL, and since they immediately started acting like thugs to everyone in the sim, I ended up as a token anti fnsl American amidst all the Europeans.

If you're a Second Life resident and want to join the effort to drive them from SL (or at least neutralize their SL presence), feel free to contact me (avatar name "Muskie Marquette") and I'll connect you with the anti fnsl folks (sorry, due to harassment and thuggery there's no open enrollment). If you're not already signed up with Second Life, it's free, but you need a very good video card and a current operating system to run the software.

[maddezmom]

5. kick

[FVZA_Colonel]

6. Far-right group formed in European parliament

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070115/wl_afp/euparliamentpolitics_070115184550



Far-right group formed in European parliament
Mon Jan 15, 1:45 PM ET

STRASBOURG (AFP) - A new extreme-right group, including veteran French firebrand Jean-Marie Le Pen and Mussolini's granddaughter, was formally created in the European parliament, parliamentary president Josep Borrell announced.

The "Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty," group which "slightly changes the political geography of our parliament" has fulfilled the conditions for its formal recognition, said Borrell at the start of a plenary session in Strasbourg.

Those rules notably include the requirement that at least 20 MEPs from five EU member states to sign up for the new political group. The formal setting up of the bloc allows it various rights including receiving official funding of around one million euros (770,000 dollars) and certain speaking rights.

French National Front MEP Bruno Gollnisch will lead the new far right bloc whose founding principles include recognising "national interests, sovereignties, identities and differences", and opposing a "unitary, bureaucratic, European superstate".

[Kutjara]

7. The European far-right has been using the Net to organize...

...for about a decade. What were formerly small and scattered ultranationalist groups, confined to individual countries, have become transnational movements, aided by technology.

It seems that European neonazi nuts are putting aside their traditional hatred of other Europeans, and uniting in their shared hatred of anyone who suffers from being a bit "brown."

The term "same shit, different wrapper" has never been more appropriate.

[papau]

8. Interesting that they sound like "states rights" GOP - but we do not label such GOPers as Far Right

Le Pen is a racist - like our States rights Dems were in the 50's and like our southern GOP often are now. But the rest of this group sound more like "western values" types fighting changes that accommodate Islamic law fundi's - demanding the new guy to town adopt the town rules - or move on. I expect they will pull a solid percentage of the vote - perhaps 20% or more - in any election. This is a reaction to the demand for special rules for Muslims in the various countries.

It will be interesting to see where this goes. I hope these folks limit themselves to just saying no to Muslim requests for special dress/behavior laws - and that this does get really nasty - but I suspect the "Muslim rights" folks will push very hard - and that there will be a push back that even harder. I wonder how the leaders of the EU left will split on the approach to this groups particular "save Western Europe Culture" points - if they will accommodate Western Culture, or Muslim rights - and how normally on the left voters will react to the Western culture pitch.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. Your faith and good will towards the far right is touching. -nt

[papau]

14. Is "states rights" always "far right"? It has been used by racist and far right types, but

is it an absolute proof of far-rightness?

On th left, where you, and I (I believe) are, there are "localization" movements to cut Globalism and Federalism out of our lives so as to have sustainable economy and ecology. Should they switch to a WTO based set of rules?

There are even those than define your "automatic rights" to end when group "rights" are pushed just as group rights end when individual rights are pushed - the balance to be struck by courts. And one of the groups with skin in the game are the culture preservation folks. Are these folks only on the far right? Some are indeed racist - but is that the motivation for all in this group?

On the left we don't use states rights as an excuse for local racism, as Le Pen does, but I believe there are those on the left who are not into Federal control of everything.

Call it "good will and faith" if you like, but I do not see local boosterism as a threat to the values of the left. Indeed I will be cheering on the Patriots in next weeks game against the Colts, mainly because I live in Mass - and not Indiana - - Do I have a local basis decision making bias that I must get rid of to be on the left?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. No, but the association linked to by the original poster IS. -nt

[papau]

18. You are correct that these "leaders" are indeed racist -I should have read the

complete article - plus the AP write-up - unlike the British Independent - did not emphasize that fact.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. No, the rest of them are like Le Pen

Made up of ultra-nationalists the group includes one Bulgarian parliamentarian, Dimitar Stoyanov, who yesterday attacked the "Jewish establishment" and accused Roma parents of selling 12-year-olds into prostitution.
...
Has five ITS members, all from racist, homophobic Greater Romania party, a, nationalist organisation that voted against joining the EU. Among other things, the party despises ethnic Hungarians, Jews and Romas.
...
The Austrian Freedom Party, which Jorg Haider made a household name is still winning votes even after his departure. The FP promises stronger anti-immigration laws, stricter law enforcement and more funds for families
...
MEPs Alessandra Mussolini, and Luca Romagnoli are both remnants of the Fascist party that ruled Italy for two decades. Mussolini, grand-daughter of Il Duce, is a former glamour model. Neither enjoy mainstream support.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2157360.ece

The UK one seems to be the least right wing one - he just has that inconvenient fraud charge hanging over him. The party that expelled him are right wing, and anti-immigration, but not racist.

[papau]

19. thanks for the heads up in the Independent - it's clear the leaders are racist - I

should have googled beyond the AP write up

[Ignacio Upton]

9. Isn't such a group an oxymoron?

I thought this same group of people was staunchly anti-EU?

[papau]

10. "states rights" is another way of saying anti-EU -the new thing is "western culture" protectors -and

that is not really new as it has been used against the Turks in Germany for a couple of decades.

[Amused Musings]

11. There is also a British party like this

I think they are trying to destroy it from the inside or at least neutralize the body's effectiveness.

[T_i_B]

12. You mean the UK Independence Party?

They exist to get Britain out of the EU, and they tend to do very well in European Parliament elections as the EU is actually very unpopular in the UK. Outside of those elections however they are still on the fringes.

And yes, UKIP are very right wing, although they are not part of this new far right grouping. The one UK MEP who is a member of this new grouping was kicked out of UKIP due to his facing prosecution for housing benefit fraud.

[LeftishBrit]

20. The British party that corresponds most closely to the Europaean far-right groups

is the British National Party (BNP), an extremely nasty, blatantly racist group. But, although they have elected some local councillors, they are not represented in either the British or the Europaean Parliament.

UKIP (UK Independence Party) does have Euro-MPs - ironically, as its main platform is opposition to the UK's membership of the EU. Most UKIP members are right-wing on many issues - it is often a refuge for Tories who feel that their party is getting too liberal. However, although some members of such an anti-Europe right-of-the-Tories party are inevitably going to be racist, the party itself is not founded on racism, unlike the BNP, LePen's National Front, and similar parties.

[Odin2005]

16. The growing popularity of these parties is concerning, but not suprising.

I fear that immigration concerns will cause Europe to shift to the right over the next decade. Many people vote for these xenophobic parties even though they are left-wing economically mainly because of a growing disgust of what is perceived (rightly ot wrongly) as politicians coddling muslim immigrants who refuse to assimilate and fears about Europe becoming "Eurabia." because of high muslim birthrates, the latter of which is mostly right-wing paranoia.