Griffin tries to build extremist bloc in Europe
Party will share £22m windfall if it can forge alliance in Strasbourg
Digg
del.icio.us
Facebook
Reddit
Google
Stumble Upon
Fark
Newsvine
YahooBuzz
Bebo
Twitter
Independent Minds
PA
The BNP Leader Nick Griffin celebrates after European parliamentary election results were announced at Manchester Town Hall
enlarge
The British National Party is attempting to patch together an alliance of extremist nationalist organisations across Europe in order to unlock hundreds of thousands of pounds of extra funding.
The party secured its biggest mainstream electoral victory in the early hours of yesterday when Nick Griffin, the chairman of the far-right party, became its second member to be elected to the European Parliament.
Hours earlier, Andrew Brons, a former chairman of the National Front who has a long history in far-right politics, became the party's first MEP after winning almost 10 per cent of the vote in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Mr Griffin achieved his long-term ambition of being elected to Brussels after scraping through to take the last of eight seats for the North East. Both men will be entitled to about £310,000 in annual funding, including an £80,443 salary, a staff budget of up to £182,000 and £40,000 for office expenses. But the British National Party (BNP) could also unlock a share of the £22.8m allowance that is given to parliamentary groups if it can find at least 25 fellow MEPs from seven member states willing to form a bloc within the European Parliament.
Being part of a group is crucial in terms of power as it entitles members to EU funding, a party office, administrative staff and, crucially, the right to vote in committees which are the nerve centre of the Parliament.
A parliamentary group is also entitled to up to £5m of extra funding over the next five-year term.
A number of far-right groups have secured seats in the European Parliament, many of whom hold outwardly racist or neo-fascist policies. Prior to the European elections, high-ranking members of the BNP had attended rallies held by neo-Nazis in both Italy and Hungary.
Simon Darby, the deputy chairman of the BNP, said Mr Griffin would begin looking for groups with which the party could form alliances.
"In the long term it would be to our advantage [to form a bloc]," he said. "Whether we will find people with enough in common I don't know, we'll have to wait for the dust to settle."
Mr Darby, who failed to win an MEP seat in the West Midlands, which had been considered one of the BNP's strongest areas, declined to specify which groups the party was talking to but he said they would look to form an alliance with France's far–right National Front. He added: "We believe in talking to people even if they have different views to our own."
In the run up to the European elections, senior BNP leaders including Mr Griffin and Mr Darby went on a series of trips to Europe to meet with fellow far-right activists.
In April, Mr Darby was welcomed with fascist salutes by members of the Italian nationalist Forza Nuova party during a trip to Milan. Headed by Roberto Fiore, a leading far-right Italian politician and a long-time friend of Mr Griffin, Forza Nuova campaigns for the expulsion of an estimated 150,000 Roma gypsies from Italy.
The BNP already has a relationship with Jobbik, a Hungarian party with its own civilian militia which won three of Hungary's 22 seats. Critics say its policies are overtly anti-Roma and anti–Semitic. Last October Mr Griffin spoke at a rally of more than 5,000 Jobbik supporters in Budapest. He has also met Jobbik activists in London.
A spokesperson for Searchlight, the anti-racism group, told The Independent that their activists would now go to Brussels to monitor the groups with which the BNP forms alliances.
"In the past the BNP have made efforts to keep their dealings with extremist parties across Europe very much under wraps," a spokesperson said. "Now those relationships will be under intense public scrutiny and we will be able to highlight the sort of company that the BNP keep."
Labour MEP for London Claude Moraesa said: "Fascists in the European Parliament where I sit have long wanted members from Britain to join this transnational group so for those reasons there is deep concern that we have now crossed that threshold."
A power base?
*57 councillors, three county councillors, one GLA member, two MEPs, 17,000 members, 65,000 callers to head office during election campaign, 30 full-time administrative staff, two million emails sent during campaign.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.
Offensive or abusive comments will be removed and your IP logged and may be used to prevent further submission. In submitting a comment to the site, you agree to be bound by the Independent Minds Terms of Service.
- Print Article
- Email Article
-
Click here for copyright permissions
Copyright 2009 Independent News and Media Limited
Comments
Now they will be able to provide a voice for the formerly forgotten and unwanted. Representation for the underprivileged, ignored white working class. It has been a triumph for democracy, a triumph for the voiceless. It is a truly heartwarming tale of indigenous empowerment, it will make for a great movie in years to come. We will look back on this election in the future and feel truly humbled to have been witness to it.
Why did you do this? Well, i imagine your labour spin buddies paid you one way or another to keep us scared of the BNP so they would get our vote instead. I bet they thought the best way to get their voters out was to make them believe we'd turn into the new Reich if they didn't vote labour. Well now that plan blatantly failed as the Tories dominated in the south with the SNP running rampant in the north.
So its over, they lost, this constant coverage of the BNP to distract the voters didn't work and you can now please, PLEASE shut up about the BN f*ckin' P.
Take an inquisitive person, just laid off or losing his home, is curious even about what all this is about, the media, the government all screaming racists, fascists etc etc.... so the curious george like many wants to hear the opposite side and hears from the BNP truthfully that the media are liars, the government provably time and again are liars and thieves and its just not true and we don't hate anyone really...
Trouble is... the BNP would be right in pointing out the many lies of this government and thus the curious george is faced with a dilemma, trust the liars and the thieves or trust a party that is resonating with much of his hardship?
So many people are going to be sucked in here, not by anything the BNP offers but because New Labour, the Tories, Lib Dems have all lied, have all supported illegal wars, have had their hands in the taxpayers pocket robbing them blind, are supporting in one form or another legislation leading to oppression, surveillance and criminalisation of the masses and all the BNP has to do is wait for the support to come in as the big three hang themselves.
Thanks to Gordon Brown, The BNP has made more mileage in this election than would have previously been thought possible. In real terms, this knee-jerk rightwards is no more than that, & the chances of the BNP emerging as a major party on the political scene are no greater now than they were before. A similar pattern was observed back in the '70's, when the National Front gained a certain, spurious credence in the face of monumental Labour incompetence, but which quickly evaporated with the ascension of Margaret Thatcher. The BNP's gains in this election say more about the damning indictment disaffected Labour voters have delivered Gordon Brown than about any fascist renaissance in Europe, & any reasonably in-touch prime minister would have taken close note of the party's & public's mood & arranged a discreet departure before such an embarrassing drubbing took place. Not so Gordon Brown. All honourable options contemptuously ignored, Brown blunders on to the bitter end. Whilst it might be true that we will never actually see an elected BNP government in Britain, it might also be true that the Labour Party might be in no position to form another government for at least another ten years.
Now Mullah Nick Griffin can unite with his fellow extremists namely the Taliban and work towards a "New World" Order.
We all know the "Old World" Order is rotten to the core; so welcome to Mullah Nick and his friends, maybe they can start a parallel UN and EU to comply with the joint manifesto of the BNP, other extremist/fascist parties and the Taliban.
http://bnp.org.uk/2009/06/bnptv-intervi
Afterwards, MPs lined up to tell Sky News they were sticking with Gordon Brown. HE IS BACK HE IS BACK HE IS BACK HE IS BACK
Worksop MP John Mann, who described himself as "non-aligned" said: "It was quite a subdued atmosphere, there was no sign of this big rebellion to get rid of him.
"The mood's not there to get chopping and changing."
Well come Brown We need you Hooray
I thank you
Firozali A Mulla
Most Islamic groups in the UK believe in Sharia law, polygamy, abolition of democracy, and some go as far to say that unbelievers should be executed.
Yet British people who live next to these communities who feel threatened to the extent that they vote for a party to counter that threat are called fascists.
If the Nazis had flooded immigrants into the UK and a party complained about it, would you call that party fascist?
Seems back to front to me.
The media is BNP mad about the rise of fascism, extremism, etc. etc. But they just don't get it.
Probably very few of their supports are racist. They are people who have been marginalised by a massive influx of immigration into their communities. By those who share a different language, culture, religion, clothing, belief system. Everything.
In the past this was known as invasion.
Now it's called multiculturism.
But were we every asked or consulted? And what steps have been taken to integrate the newcomers?
Video link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNEIprfX
I also find it weird that the local Welsh people where that weirdo Griffin actual has a farm in mid Wales, that they actually allow the piece of dogshit to live there - considering the amount of effort the farming community in particular put into harrasment of 'new age travellers'. I would havce thought for any true Sons of Glyndwr to have this pro British state nazi perv residing in their tribal territory to be a continuing insult to tribal honour. I guess thats some sort of reflection on both the process of colonialisation, and the state of sanity of whats left there of 'Y Cymru' - which means, by the way, The People. (sic).
BTW where are you in this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNEIprfX
We are in for the next 5 years of national and international shame in Europe and the World, courtesy of British voters who voted BNP.
Well done, you thieving scumbag politicians with your grubby fingers in the public purse. Hopefully you will be first against the wall.
Taking the pre mentioned matters into account , the collapse of the Labour party's votes in it's heartlands , after not heeding warning 6 years previously when Barnsley had been electing British Nazi party Councillors , despite their thuggish attitude after being elected , can only be attributed to neglect at local and National level by the Labour Government and Labour local authorities . After Thatcherism crushed the heartland of British industry and did nothing to create new jobs and Enterprise , the Labour Government, and Local authorities failed to take on board the problems in the North West and North East and took support for granted due to the Failure of Thatcherism in these areas . Lack of Local Government and National Government initiatives are giving the people the impression that Nazism is the only true answer to the problem . SUPPORTING NAZISM WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM , IT WILL BROADEN IT !
Finally we have a party that gives a voice to a very large number of people - more than the 900,000 who voted for them! - who up until now did not have a political party to voice their views.
The BNP speaks common sense and you don't hear that from many other politicans; who all use the same politically 'newspeak', that prevents us from debating the issues that matter.
Unite Against Fascism, Searchlight etc are anti democratic and to punish their undemocratic and violent behaviour the public should support the BNP's right to free speech and debate.
I really resent the fact that these unelected groups feel they can tell me who and who not to vote for.
If they are so popular they should stand against the BNP in the elections - and then we can all see who has the most support!
The EU currently has one-third of the world's wealth but predicts that percentage to decline to 10% by 2050. Unless you think the world is going to get 3.5 times richer by then that's bad news for Europe. Considering there'll be no cheap oil and gas about in 2050 it's hard to imagine the world won't, infact, be a lot poorer by then.
Perhaps the UK will out perform Europe and save us all? Unlikely given that the over-crowded UK has few natural resources, weak manufacturing, a sick banking and finance sector, a poor energy, food, transport and educational infrastructure and serious 'social capital' problems.
So Europe will be a good environment for young fascists, a bad environment for the rest of us. If you have kids it might be best to escape ASAP. Canada perhaps?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2
A difference in opinion (fundamental or otherwise) does not mean you are talking to a racist, a bigot, a fascist, extremist or protectionist. Some liberals are bounding these terms around diluting their true meanings.
For example. I would argue that 99.99% of the worlds population are NOT racist. How can I defend that statement? Through research and extended disciplined reasoning - naturally.
Below is a film that'll educate those who have wondered whether or not they are indeed racists. If you're one of those who is already convinced that racism is an pandemic, you wont watch this film. Instead, you'll ridicule this posting for all its worth rather than contributing an important debate.
Educate your perception. http://www.truveo.com/A-Conversation-Ab