Gloria R. Lalumia's World Media Watch for January 12, 2007--EU Fascists

[Demeter]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/lalumia/144

Summaries are excerpted from the source articles; the featured article follows the summary section. A recommended "site of the day" will also appear occasionally following the summaries.

1//DW World.de/Deutsche Welle, Germany
NEW GROUP OF EU LEADERS TO PUSH FAR-RIGHT AGENDA


A motley association of extreme-right wing members of the European Parliament (MEPs) announced they will form a parliamentary group, enabling them to qualify for EU funding and support. The group, to be called "Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty" (ITS), will broadly oppose immigration, Turkish accession to the EU, and the European constitution. It will focus on "defending Christian values, the family, and European civilization," EU French National Front MEP Bruno Gollnisch said. The coalition is made up of a number of extremists who have long sought the chance to forge a political group, which under EU rules must comprise 20 members from at least five different political parties. The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU on Jan. 1 boosted the ranks of far-right MEPs in Strasbourg, making such a coalition possible. ... Hannes Swoboda, vice president of the European Parliament's Socialist group, said the creation of the ITS is "definitely bad news," since it gives an essentially disparate group of people a common base. "Until now they were split against each other -- they were not so visible and influential," Swoboda noted. ... "De facto, it's support for not only anti-European, but maybe even racist right-wing propaganda. And that is of course very negative. But that is the price of democracy," he said. ... Should it actually form -- on Wednesday they had just 17 official signatures in hand, with the promise of three more -- the group will most likely be led by the National Front's Gollnisch. Other members will include six MEPs from France's National Front, including its leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and three politicians from Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang. Other joiners are Italian neo-Fascist Alessandra Mussolini (Benito's granddaughter), Andreas Mölzer of Austria's xenophobic Freedom Party, and the UK's Ashley Mote.

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[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Ashley Mote is one of my MEPs

and he's still under investigation for benefit fraud. He was elected as a member of the right-wing, anti-EU UK Independence Party, in June 2004, and they chucked him out a month later, when they found out about the benefit fraud charges (he'd neglected to tell them). But he gets to keep his £60,000 MEP salary, and the most generous expenses system I've ever heard of, and sits as an independent MEP, for the next 5 years. I'm not even sure if he'd be disqualified as an MEP even if he is found guilty of fraud.