http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,,1984947,00.html
Romania's first gift to the European Union - a caucus of neo-fascists and
Holocaust deniers
· Accession states mean group has enough MEPs
· Le Pen deputy set to be leader of far-right alliance
Ian Traynor, Europe editor
Monday January 8, 2007
The Guardian
Corneliu Vadim Tudor, runs the anti-Hungarian, anti-semitic and anti-Roma
Greater Romanian party. Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA
In France, the group's prospective leader has been barred from teaching at his
university and is awaiting a court verdict for questioning the Nazis' mass
murder of Europe's Jews.
His Bulgarian colleague brags that his country has the "prettiest Gypsies" and
says he knows where to buy 12-year-old Gypsy brides for "up to ?5,000"
(£2,250).
Then there is the Polish professor who uses public office to pay tribute to
General Franco, the late Spanish dictator. Or the intellectual strategist of an
Austrian party whose ideology, according to a Vienna court, is similar to that
of Hitler's "national socialism".
Such are the leading lights of "Europe of the Fatherlands", the world of
politically organised European far-right extremism who are expected to form
their first transnational organisation next week by establishing a formal
caucus in the European parliament.
The development is an early result of the accession of Romania and Bulgaria.
Ironically, given the hostility of the west European far right to expansion, to
immigration, and to eastern Europe, it is Romania's entry that has made the
caucus possible: the EU parliament's rules stipulate that an official caucus in
the chamber needs to have representatives from at least five countries, and a
minimum of 19 MEPs. They now meet this requirement.
Efforts have been under way for years to increase the clout of the far right in
Europe by pooling assets and resources. The former pioneer of the modern
European populist right, Jörg Haider of Austria, was wooed as a possible
European leader. But the plans foundered because of differences among the
notoriously fractious national leaders. These frictions remain. Italy's
Northern League, for example, is boycotting the caucus because the league's
head, Umberto Bossi, cannot stand the leader of France's National Front,
Jean-Marie Le Pen.
"It's pretty much watertight, although there are still a few imponderables,"
the far-right Austrian MEP Andreas Moelzer told the Austrian press agency.
"We've already got a common programme."
The plan is to announce the creation of an official parliamentary caucus during
the first session of the year on January 15. The caucus will bring together
about 20 MEPs from at least six countries. Mr Moelzer said the numbers could
expand to 40. Ashley Mote, an MEP for south-east England who sits as an
independent and was previously from the UK Independence party, is being
mentioned as a member.
Bulgaria's quota of European parliament seats includes one held by the extreme
Ataka party of Volen Siderov, which campaigns against Gypsies or Roma and
Turks, while Romania has supplied a breakthrough for the hard right by gaining
five seats for Corneliu Vadim Tudor's anti-Hungarian, anti-Semitic and
anti-Roma Greater Romanian party.
The turnaround came last week when Mr Tudor said his delegates would join the
new caucus, expected to be named either "Europe of the Fatherlands" or
"Identity, Sovereignty, Tradition".
The brains behind the new movement are Mr Moelzer, who was an ideologist for Mr
Haider for years before falling out with him, and Frank Vanhecke, the leader of
Vlaams Belang, Belgium's separatist Flemish nationalist party. Ironically, Mr
Moelzer's Austrian Freedom party voted against letting Romania join the EU.
Bruno Gollnisch, a French MEP and a deputy leader of Mr Le Pen's National
Front, is expected to lead the new group, with Mr Moelzer as its general
secretary.
The members include Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the Italian former
fascist leader Benito, and Dimitar Stoyanov, a new Bulgarian MEP who circulated
an email saying there were much "prettier Gypsies" in Bulgaria after a
Hungarian Roma woman was named European MP of the year a few months ago. "You
can even buy yourself a loving [Gypsy] wife aged 12 or 13 ... The best of are
very expensive, up to ?5,000 each."
Mr Gollnisch is awaiting a verdict from a Lyon court on charges of questioning
the Holocaust. Other possible members of the group include the League of Polish
Families, a junior partner in Warsaw's centre-right government, regularly
accused of gay-bashing and anti-Semitism.
By establishing a formal caucus, the extreme right will benefit from greater EU
funding. A priority, said Mr Moelzer, will be to fight any German-led attempts
to revive Europe's comatose constitution.
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