Nick Clegg's Supporters Round on Activists Calling for Him to Quit

Nick Clegg's supporters are criticising a push to oust the
Liberal Democrat leader from office in the wake of
disastrous local and European election results.

THE GUARDIAN: Lib Dem activists had claimed the deputy prime minister has no strategy to prevent electoral oblivion in 2015

Supporters of Nick Clegg have derided a push to oust the Liberal Democrat leader from office in the wake of disastrous local and European election results, claiming there were only minimal signs of a revolt inside the parliamentary party.

But Clegg's critics, comprising more than 200 party activists who backed the call for a change at the top, say the deputy prime minister is offering no strategy to prevent electoral oblivion in 2015 other than the hope that the current message will be better received in a year's time.

They claim there will be further momentum when the party sees the scale of the setbacks in the European elections. Some of those calling for a change in leader would prefer Vince Cable, the business secretary, to take the helm without a contest, but it is unlikely that the Treasury chief secretary, Danny Alexander, or other key figures at the top of the party would permit such a coronation. » | Patrick Wintour, Nicholas Watt and Rowena Mason | Sunday, May 25, 2014

Ukip Storms European Elections

Nigel Farage: My party's victory will 'terrify' the
political establishment

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Nigel Farage says Ukip's success in the European elections will 'terrify' political establishment and prove 'disastrous' for Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg

The UK Independence Party has won a national election for the first time, taking the most votes and seats in the European Parliament elections according to sources in all of Britain's main political parties.

The Ukip victory, which came as anti-establishment parties advanced across the European Union, represents the biggest shock to the British political system in a generation.

Even before the final results were announced, sources in Ukip and the three older political parties were all predicting a historic victory for Nigel Farage’s party, which was founded in 1993 and does not have a single MP or council leader.

Labour was on course to come second, the first time the main Opposition party has failed to win a European election since 1984 and a serious setback to Ed Miliband.

The Conservatives said they would come third, a result that will add to the questions about David Cameron’s ability to win a majority at the general election next year. » | James Kirkup and Steven Swinford | Sunday, May 25, 2014

Far-right National Front Triumph in France as Voters across Europe Turn to Extremists and Anti-EU Parties

Jubilant: French National Front leader Marine Le Pen reacts
to exit polls revealing her party won the election

THE MAIL ON SUNDAY: Exit polls have placed the hardline party as the country's most popular / The ruling socialists appeared to trail well behind with just 14 per cent / FN leader Marine Le Pen heralded victory for 'sovereign people of France' / Prime Minister Manuel Valls described result as 'a shock, an earthquake' / Le Pen called for French parliament to be dissolved to 'control borders'

The far-right National Front has topped polls in France as countries across Europe turned to extremist and anti-EU parties.

Exit polls suggested the anti-immigrant party led by Marine Le Pen had taken more than a quarter of votes, pushing President Hollande’s Socialist Party into third place with just 13 per cent.

It is the first time that the party – which wants to drastically cut immigration and reduce the influence of Islam – has come first in a nationwide French election in its 40-year history. Projections suggest it could take 25 Euro seats out of 74.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the National Front victory was ‘a political earthquake in France’, while ecology minister Segolene [sic] Royale said: ‘It’s a shock on a global scale.’

The result was the most striking of a number of successes for far right and anti-EU parties across Europe.

Chillingly, there were indications that a neo-Nazi candidate for the NPD party could be elected in Germany - giving the far-right a foothold for the first time in decades. » | Daniel Martin, Whitehall Correspondent | Sunday, May 25, 2014

Marine Le Pen Wins Record Victory for Front National in French Elections

French far-right leader of the National Front Party, Marine Le Pen

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Marine Le Pen's far-Right Front National party has scored its highest ever percentage of the vote, exit polls in France show

France’s far-Right Front National was on course for an historic victory in European elections on Sunday night, coming top in a national election for the first time in its 42-year history in a score it said represented a “massive rejection” of the EU.

Early exit polls placed the anti-European, anti-immigrant party first with 25 per cent of the vote – a result that was even better than expected.

The result put the FN well ahead of the opposition centre-Right UMP party, on 20.6 per cent, which lost nine percentage points compared to 2009.

The ruling Socialists clinched a paltry 14.1 per cent, the second drubbing they have received in nationwide elections in two months after suffering heavy losses in municipal elections in March.

Estimations suggest that the FN was on course for clinching 24 seats in the European Parliament – a major jump from the three it won in 2009 – with the UMP taking 19, the Socialists 13 and the Greens six. » | Henry Samuel, Nanterre | Sunday, May 25, 2014

EU Elections 2014: 'Toxic' Marine Le Pen Blamed for Geert Wilders Defeat

Geert Wilders (right) with Marine Le Pen last year

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: EU election defeat for Geert Wilders blamed on his decision to link with French Front National rather than Nigel Farage

A disastrous European Union election vote for the Dutch far-Right has been blamed on a "toxic" Marine Le Pen and is seen as vindication of Nigel Farage's refusal to work with the French Front National.

The result is a blow to Miss Le Pen and will be widely seen as the consequence of her failure to break from the Front National's extremist past, a legacy embodied by her father Jean-Marie who remains an MEP and honorary president of the party.

His close alliance with Miss Le Pen is seen as the key factor in the unexpected defeat of Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party (PVV) on Thursday night after Dutch exit polls put him in fourth place behind all the pro-EU Dutch political parties. » | Bruno Waterfield in Scheveningen and Henry Samuel in Paris | Friday, May 23, 2014

European Election Upset for Geert Wilders as Dutch Turn Cold on Anti-EU Party

Dutch right-wing 'Partij voor de Vrijheid' (PVV) leader Geert Wilders
poses for the media after voting for the European Parliament

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Dutch exit polls confound predictions to leave far-Right and anti-Islam leader with 12.2 per cent of vote, behind all pro-EU mainstream political parties

Geert Wilders came fourth in European elections in the Netherlands on Thursday night, confounding predictions that he would lead a populist and far-Right backlash against the European Union across the continent.

Dutch exit polls put the far-Right and anti-Islam leader on 12.2 per cent of the vote, putting him behind all the pro-EU mainstream political parties.

'Definitive' exit polls put him behind the ruling centrist VVD on 12.3 per cent and almost three per cent behind the pro-EU D66 liberals and Christian Democrats, each on over 15 per cent.

Previous opinion polls had put Mr Wilders in the lead but there was widespread controversy over his alliance with the France’s Front National and the exit polls suggested that his share of the vote fell, compared with 2009, by 4.8 percentage points.

The result is a major blow to Mr Wilders who will lose a seat in the European Parliament with his MEPs now reduced to three out a total of 26 Dutch representatives. » | Bruno Waterfield, Scheveningen | Thursday, May 22, 2014

Fear and Hate on the Rise: Europe Revives Its Old Monsters
FRANCE 24: Europe has elected its angriest, most eurosceptic and xenophobic parliament ever - with a battalion of hard-right parties breaking through for the first time on a wave of anti-immigrant feeling and an unholy cocktail of both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.

But while there is no denying the fury of the "angry middle-aged men" apparently responsible for electing the violent anti-Roma Jobbik party in Hungary, the BNP in Britain, Heinz-Christian Strache's Third Reich nostalgics in Austria and Geert Wilders Freedom Party in Holland - who alone on the extreme right is proud to call himself a Zionist - the new parliament will also have a caucus of new and surprising progressive voices.

Sweden's Pirate Party, who have campaigned for freer internet downloading and a loosening of copyright restrictions, have struck a chord among the young everywhere, and France's crusading anti-corruption magistrate Eva Joly - elected on the Green ticket - and her Italian opposite number Antonio Di Pietro are likely to hold many in Brussels and beyond it to account.

This is also a much more colourful and controversial parliament than the one that went before. If half of the parliament's accountability problem is its lack of visibility, a bit of personality surely has to be a good thing - granted, of course, that it does not turn into a theatre of hate. But even that unedifying prospect may prompt the majority of Europeans who did not bother to vote to do so the next time. >>> By Fiachra Gibbons/RFI | Sunday, June 07, 2009

European Elections 2009: How Labour Let the BNP Flex Its Muscles
THE TELEGRAPH: The collapse of the traditional vote in working-class strongholds was the key as an openly racist party won seats for the first time in a nationwide election, says Philip Johnston.

The smirk on Nick Griffin's face as he walked on to the platform at Manchester town hall in the early hours of yesterday morning said it all. The BNP had arrived. For the first time in a nationwide election, the voters of the United Kingdom had returned candidates from an avowedly racist political party.

Our cosy complacency that imagined that only Continental Europeans elect fascists to parliament was shattered. A collective wail of middle-class angst went up from mainstream party leaders: what have we done? Liam Fox the Tory shadow cabinet member, said: "All politicians should be asking themselves 'how did we allow this to happen?' "

The hostility engendered by Griffin's victory was palpable: as he took his place on the stage, giving a Churchillian "V for Victory" salute, his opponents all walked off. But we cannot keep walking away from the BNP. They need to be tackled head on. It is because the mainstream parties, Labour in particular, have failed so comprehensively to address any of the issues exploited by Griffin and his followers that they have been able to win two seats in the European parliament (under a PR system whose proponents might now think twice about pursuing it for Westminster).

Harriet Harman, Labour's blue-stocking deputy leader, said: "It's a terrible thing that we've now got representing Britain in the European parliament a party that is a racist party, a party that doesn't believe black people should even be allowed to join this party. What extremist, far right, racist parties like the British National Party do is exploit people's fears and if people are worried about their future they turn inwards."

But whose fault is that? This has not happened in a political vacuum. It was the collapse of Labour's vote in areas it considered its fiefdom that let in the BNP. After 12 years in power, Miss Harman cannot try to pass the buck. Most galling of all is that the British taxpayer will now fund the BNP through the generous salaries and allowances for which it now qualifies in the European parliament. >>> By Philip Johnston | Monday, June 08, 2009

This article is totally unbalanced, since it fails to mention some of the most important reasons why people felt moved to vote BNP: The mainstream parties gave them no alternative. The election of two BNP MEPs has clearly rattled the British establishment.

The fact is that all three mainstream parties will not face, still less confront, the real issues facing us all. Islam is growing apace in Europe. The demographic jihad (as well as many other jihads!) is being waged against us. The nature of European society is changing before our very eyes, and nobody is prepared to discuss the problem from the mainstream parties, still less do anything about it. The BNP is prepared to attack the problem head on. That is one big reason why many so-called "working class" people voted BNP, I believe. The liberal, leftist élite, of whom David Cameron is one, judging by his policies, knows nothing about the dangers of Islam, and they are too cowardly to confront the problem head on. The BNP is not.

All main parties are for the accession of Turkey into the EU. Most people I know - middle class people or working class - are against this accession. Yet nobody in the mainstream parties will speak for them. The BNP will. It is firmly against Turkey’s accession; and rightly so.

I predict that if things go on as they are, the BNP will grow and grow, because they will fill the political void that the other parties have created.

It is such a pity that the Conservative Party has lost its courage. Historically, one could always depend on the Conservative Party to get us out of a hole. No longer, it seems. Hence, many must have felt disenfranchised. The result: Many decided not to vote at all; others voted for extreme parties.

This problem needs to be tackled head on; otherwise extremism will continue to rear its head. – ©Mark

European Elections 2009: BNP in Line for £4 Million Cash Boost in Euro Success
THE TELEGRAPH: The British National Party is in line for a £4 million cash boost as its European election breakthrough was widely condemned as a "shaming" for Britain.

British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin celebrates his election results. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
The far right group won its first two seats in the European Parliament as the Labour vote collapsed, sending shock waves through Westminster and the country.

Leader Nick Griffin, one of the successful MEPs, said it meant a "huge change in British politics". Critics lined up to condemn the result.

Mr Griffin and his new MEP colleague, Andrew Brons, will now be able to take advantage of EU expenses and allowances worth up to £395,000 a year each over their five year term.

Mr Griffin and Mr Brons will each have access to an annual salary of £80,443, an annual staff budget of £190,000, phone and postal allowances of £45,000 a year and a daily attendance allowance worth up to £80,000 a year, with no receipts required.

In comparison, in 2007, the BNP raised just £500,000 and in the first five months of this year are said to have raised £650,000.

Their success has also presented new problems for broadcasters who have to offer "due impartiality" to all political parties.

Ben Bradshaw, the Culture Secretary, admitted the success poses a "dilemma" under impartiality rules.

Mr Bradshaw told the Commons: "I'm sure that the broadcasters will be taking their responsibilities under the impartiality rules extremely seriously, but you are right to say that what happened yesterday does pose a dilemma for them.

"My own view is that usually when you give these people a platform, they condemn themselves through their own mouths."

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said: "It sickens me and it should sicken everybody here that the British National Party has succeeded in these European elections.

"It brings shame on us that these fascist, racist thugs have been elected to the European Parliament."

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, labelled the BNP a "party of thugs and fascists" who "don't provide any hope, they don't provide answers, they don't provide solutions to people's problems, whether it is jobs, climate change or crime."

Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, said the result was "horrific" but admitted it was partly down to Labour's collapse in its heartlands. >>> By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor | Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Hallelujah! Europe Voters Swing to Right
TIMES ONLINE: The party of far-right anti-Muslim MP Geert Wilders, who was banned from entering Britain earlier this year for his xenophobic beliefs, has won its first four seats in the European Parliament, according to a Dutch exit poll last night.

The result, which places the Freedom Party second in the Netherlands behind the ruling Christian Democrats and ahead of Labour, suggests that many continental voters will swing behind fringe anti-immigrant parties in the European poll.

An exit poll for the Dutch national broadcaster NOS gave Mr Wilders’s party around 15 per cent of votes, with the ruling right-of-centre party on 20.3 per cent. It confirms forecasts that the Right will be the main victors of this week’s European Parliament elections, with results set to be declared officially in Sunday night after polls have closed in all 27 EU countries.

Mr Wilders, who will not be among his party’s MEPs, lives under police protection after numerous death threats for his outspoken views on closing mosques and blocking immigration in Europe’s most densely populated country.

The party’s message found a resonance in a backlash against the tolerance of immigrants for which the Netherlands has become known. Mr Wilders, 45, instantly recognisable with his shock of dyed platinum hair, last year made a controversial film which portrayed images of extremist violence against a backdrop of the Koran.

“Turkey as [an] Islamic country should never be in the EU, not in 10 years, not in a million years,” he said while campaigning on the slogan "More Netherlands, less Europe". Europe Voters Swing to Right, Say Pollsters >>> David Charter, Europe Correspondent | Friday, June 05, 2009

A Triumphant Day for Geert Wilders in the Netherlands
TELEGRAPH: Geert Wilders' far-Right anti-immigration party made significant gains in the European Parliament elections in the Netherlands on Thursday, according to exit polls.

Geert Wilders, who was banned from Britain by the Home Office because of his controversial views on Islam, won support from Protestant and Catholic voters. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
The European Parliament elections had been widely expected to punish governments struggling to cope with the global economic crisis, and polls released by the ANP news agency and broadcaster NOS put the Right-wing Freedom Party on course to win four of the 25 Dutch seats in the parliament, after having none in the previous assembly. This put Mr Wilders' party second only to the ruling Christian Democrats, which got nearly 20 per cent of votes, according to the poll.

Mr Wilders, who was banned from Britain by the Home Office because of his controversial views on Islam, won support from Protestant and Catholic voters disenchanted with what has been perceived as the growing influence of the nation's 800,000 Muslims, many of them immigrants from Morocco and Turkey.

Mr Wilders, whose party was contesting European elections for the first time, campaigned on an anti-EU platform and criticised Turkey's bid to join the EU.

"Should Turkey as an Islamic country be able to join the European Union? We are the only party in Holland that says, it is an Islamic country, so no, not in 10 years, not in a million years," he said. Dutch Far-Right Comes Second in European Parliament Election >>> | Thursday, June 04, 2009

NRC HANDELSBLAD INTERNATIONAL: Wilders Big Winner of Dutch EU Elections

The Party for Freedom of the populist politician Geert Wilders becomes the second biggest party representing in the Netherlands in Europe.

Geert Wilders and his populist Party for Freedom (PVV) appeared to be the big winners of Thursday's elections for European parliament in the Netherlands. Exit polls released soon after the Dutch voting stations closed at 9 p.m. on Thursday evening predicted he would get four of the 25 Dutch seats in the European parliament, making the PVV the second largest of all Dutch parties in Brussels.
Wilders, who has become popular in the Netherlands running on an anti-Islam and anti-political establishment platform, promised voters he would be tough on immigration and criticised Turkey's bid to join the EU. "Should Turkey as an Islamic country be able to join the European Union? We are the only party in Holland that says, it is an Islamic country, so no, not in 10 years, not in a million years," Wilders said. >>> NRC Handelsblad News Desk | Thursday, June 04, 2009

EU Oligarchs Help Far Right Prosper
THE AUSTRALIAN: THE leaders of the European Union hate elections to the European Parliament. Why? Because these caricatures of democratic decision-making expose the contempt with which the European public regards the oligarchy that runs the EU.

A survey of 27,000 EU citizens commissioned by the European Parliament indicates that on average only 34per cent of them planned to vote in the elections. In Britain, 30 per cent of the respondents indicated they would definitely not vote.

Voter apathy tells only part of the story. There is considerable evidence that lack of interest in the EU elections is fuelled by a powerful sense of distrust, dissatisfaction and frustration. One German survey of 12,000 Europeans shows 60 per cent of the respondents assumed that one reason why so many of them are not inclined to vote is because they are "being lied to in election promises". Almost half said they "cannot improve anything by voting". In Poland and Finland, about two-thirds of the respondents expressed this fatalistic attitude.

Typically the EU political elite presents voter apathy as the unfortunate consequence of public misperception. They suggest that their good works are not appreciated by a public that simply does not get what they do. Public disengagement is rarely presented as an indictment of EU institutions. "It's not that people are staying away from these elections because they are critical of the European Union and its political process," claims Hermann Schmitt of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research. From this perspective the public's lack of interest is interpreted as simply a problem of presentation. That is why the European Commission sought to woo young voters with cool election ads on MTV networks.

However, there is considerable evidence that public disengagement is not the unintended consequence of poor public relations but the outcome of a project that explicitly attempts to distance political decision-making from the gaze of European citizens.

The distinct feature of the EU's political process is that it is self-consciously founded on the principle of insulated decision-making. From the standpoint of the European political elites, one of the virtues of EU institutions is that they insulate them from the kind of public pressure and forms of accountability that they experience in their national parliaments. Consequently the EU is able to adopt policies that would often prove contentious and difficult to justify in a more open national parliamentary setting.

In effect, politicians can continually hide behind the EU's invisible decision-making process and claim "it wasn't my idea" before adding that "unfortunately we have no choice but to go along with this Europe-wide directive".

Insulated decision-making relies on institutions that are in effect outside the realm of public scrutiny. As Bruno Waterfield writes in an important study for the Manifesto Club, "a unique form of 21st-century statecraft has emerged" that allows "expanding areas of public authority to retreat into a closed, private world of bureaucrats and diplomats". In effect most EU legislation is formulated by the hundreds of secret working groups set up by the Council of the EU.

Most of the sessions of the Council of Ministers are held behind closed doors and the unelected European Commission has the sole right to put forward legislation. Yet most of the decisions taken by the European Council are concerned with subjects that were previously discussed in national legislatures. These are public-free institutions that are designed to bypass conventional forms of democratic accountability.

The inevitable consequence of the institutionalisation of insulated decision-making is that it diminishes the capacity of European politicians to motivate and inspire their electorate. What appears as a problem of presentation is actually an expression of a style of communication that is suitable for behind-the-scenes manoeuvring but not for public engagement. Invariably they come across as what they really are, bureaucrats, rather than as political leaders. Their ineptness has been exposed time and again as they proved unequal to the task of gaining support for the proposed EU constitution in national referendums.

Is it any surprise that they have decided that referendums are not needed for implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon? >>> Frank Furedi | Thursday, June 04, 2009

Europe Braces for Extremist Gains in Elections
ASSOCIATED PRESS: MANCHESTER, England — In some of Manchester's bleakest neighborhoods where unemployment is rife and anxiety about an immigration influx is palpable, one of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's worst fears is unfolding before Thursday's European Union elections.

The British National Party, which doesn't allow nonwhites as members and is against membership in the European Union, is gaining ground in former Labour Party strongholds that once threw their support behind Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair.

Widespread voter discontent across Europe is expected to give extremist and fringe groups like the BNP gains in the European assembly elections, victories that could mire the EU in even more confusion.

"I think the BNP could do a lot better for the country," Chris Rowlinson, 38, said Tuesday. "It would be sort of like the positive things what Winston Churchill did for the British people."

The recession, corruption, a culture of excess — these issues and others have angered many of the 27-nation bloc's 375 million voters. Turnout is expected to be low for the European parliament election on Thursday through Saturday. If people vote at all, many will cast protest ballots against mainstream parties.

Britain has felt the biggest voter backlash after an expense scandal tarred all three main political parties. Data leaked to a newspaper showed that lawmakers submitted expense claims for everything from pornography to chandeliers and moats at country estates — all while people were losing jobs, homes or pensions.

In northern cities like Manchester, where gritty housing projects stand near abandoned textile warehouses and recycling plants, voters have turned against Brown over fears that jobs will be lost to foreign workers or immigrants. The Manchester area is also home to one of Britain's largest Muslim communities. >>> By Paisley Dodds | Tuesday, June 02, 2009

European Parliament Elections: The Possible Fallout
HOPE NOT HATE: UK prime minister Gordon Brown with the Hope Not Hate bus, part of a campaign to reject the British National Party when the UK votes in European Parliament elections on June 4. Photo courtesy of The Sofia Echo
THE SOFIA ECHO: The Telegraph is no friend of Gordon Brown’s Labour government, but its report that Labour’s looming humiliation in the European Parliament elections has profound domestic political ramifications is likely to resonate across the country.

"One thing is clear: most people want an election either now or, preferably, in the autumn once parties have cleared out candidates they do not want to stand in their colours," the Telegraph said on June 1 2009.

"Only one third want Mr Brown to go the full term which would take him to next summer. If Labour does come fourth on Thursday, the option may no longer be in his hands," the newspaper said.

The Telegraph, which has led the way in coverage of the expenses scandal, also gave prominent coverage to the controversy around Tory leader David Cameron’s mortgage payments. Most observers believe that both mainstream parties in the UK will be punished because of the expenses scandal.

Brown has insisted that he will stay on even if Labour is routed at the European Parliament polls, telling the BBC Radio 4's Today he was not "arrogant" or "unwilling to listen" but would "stay on to do the job" before calling a general election.

"I'm the best person to clean up the political system," Brown said. "I think the cleaning up of the political system is best done by someone who has got a clear idea of what needs to be done - and I have." >>> By Clive Leviev-Sawyer | Monday, June 01, 2009

Church Demand on Our Voting Choice Is Arrogant
'RATHER SILLY': Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. Photo courtesy of the Daily Express
SUNDAY EXPRESS: Five days from now we shall have voted, or more likely according to the opinion polls not have voted, in the European elections and the ecclesiastical establishment is getting its gaiters in a twist over its fear that we shall do something stupid.

The well-intentioned although from time to time rather silly Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has been joined by the usually sensible Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu in issuing a rare joint statement.

Recognising the anger that exposure of the House of Commons expenses scandal has caused they urge that at a time of turbulence and disgust with the main political parties voters must avoid voting for the British National Party.

Their unprecedented intervention may have been prompted by an opinion poll that found that more than 25 per cent of the electorate is planning to reject the Westminster Establishment in the June 4 elections.

Yet the Church may have already undermined its authority to lecture the country about its behaviour. For one thing it supports multiculturalism and open-door immigration, outraging the vast majority of the population who were never asked if that was what they wanted, and the Archbishops have given the oxygen of publicity to a political party which is only a marginal force.

They may also have compounded their mistakes by assuming that we will put up with being told how we must, or must not, vote. The Archbishops’ intervention has been arrogant, patronising and unnecessary. >>> Jimmy Young | Sunday, May 31, 2009

Muslim Turkey’s Attack on Leaflet “Proof of the Danger of EU’s Expansion” says BNP Leader
BNP: The demand by the Muslim country of Turkey for the withdrawal of British National Party leaflets objecting to that nation’s inclusion into the European Union is proof that the BNP’s position on the matter is correct, Nick Griffin has said.

In his reaction to the news that the Turkish embassy in London has formally complained to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office over the BNP European election material, Mr Griffin said the reaction “showed that the Turkish government had a fundamentally flawed understanding of what democracy was, and that democracy included the right to free speech.

“We would never dream of trying to dictate to Turkey what it should allow and what it should not, even when it for example officially criminalises anyone promoting the 1915 Armenian genocide,” Mr Griffin said, referring to the near extermination of Armenia by the Ottoman Turkish Empire during World War One. That atrocity is officially denied by the present Turkish government, despite worldwide disapproval.

“The point is that Turkey has a very poor track record of democracy and free speech, and its demand for the suppression of a perfectly legitimate political party’s election material in another country shows exactly how dangerous it would be to expand the EU to include this 99 percent Muslim nation,” Mr Griffin said. >>> BNP News Team | Monday, May 25, 2009

Far Right Is the Centre of Attention
SCOTSMAN: CLAD in black trousers, waistcoats and caps, the Hungarian Guard stand to attention and pledge to defend their nation.

Then, in scenes reminiscent of Europe's dark past, they march with flags and banners flying, hoping to be the trailblazers of a Hungarian nation reborn.

The guard, the uniformed wing of the small political party Jobbik, are also the vanguard of a resurgent and confident extreme right wing, aiming to make gains across central Europe in next month's European parliament elections.

Jobbik – short for Movement for a Better Hungary – aims to scoop 10 per cent of the national vote as polls across the continent open from 4-7 June.

In the Czech Republic, the National Party shocked the country when it offered a "final solution to the gypsy problem", while its larger counterpart, the Workers' Party, has few qualms about sending its "security brigades" into neighbourhoods dominated by gypsies, or Roma – a group which is often a target.

Ondrej Cakl, an expert on the Czech far right, said a few years ago, Workers' Party meetings attracted only a couple of dozen, but now they attract hundreds.

In Romania, one party urges "Christians and patriots to rid the country of thieves". In Austria, the powerful Freedom Party, led by Heinz-Christian Strache, has high expectations from June's vote: last September, it took 17.5 per cent of the vote in national elections, and experts predict it will make significant gains on the 6 per cent it won in the last European elections.

Across the continent, the far right could well win more than the 25 seats it needs to form a bloc in the European Parliament and secure about £1 million in annual funding. >>> By Matthew Day in Warsaw | Monday, May 25, 2009

Czech Far-right Party Linked to BNP Runs Euro Election TV Ads Demanding 'Final Solution' to Gypsy Problem
Nick Griffin. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: A far-right party in the Czech Republic, which has links with the BNP, has caused a storm by calling for a 'final solution to the gipsy [sic] issue'.

The Nazis used the term as a euphemism for the mass slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust.

The National Party in Prague made the call in a TV ad for the European Parliament elections next month.

The camera panned over dishevelled and dirty-looking Roma women and children, before a voice-over said 'we call for final solution to the gipsy issue'.

There were also slogans on screen such as 'Stop black racism', 'No favouring of gipsies' and 'We don't want black racists among us'.

Czech extremists routinely refer to Roma people as blacks. The Czech government has expressed outrage over the broadcast and pledged that it will not be repeated.

BNP leader Nick Griffin spoke last year at a rally of the National Party, which is also anti-immigration and anti-Muslim.

In his speech he railed against the accession of Turkey to the EU, saying that the introduction of millions of Muslims into the EU would 'drive down wages, living standards and increase taxes'. >>> By Allan Hall | Friday, May 22, 2009

A Right Menace: Nick Griffin
THE INDEPENDENT: Fears of a surge in support for the BNP at the European elections have put its leader in the spotlight. And now he's got Buckingham Palace squirming

Whichever way you look at it, the announcement that Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, might attend a royal garden party at Buckingham Palace is a milestone moment in British politics. For it marks another stage in the transformation of Britain's biggest far-right party from a past of street thuggery to the brink of electoral breakthrough. Griffin could next month become the party's first member of the European Parliament.

The real question is whether it has done that by shrugging off its neo-fascist antecedents and entering the extreme right of mainstream politics – or is it being done by the perpetration of long-running confidence trick upon the electorate? The answer to that lies in the one man whose personal writ runs authoritatively throughout the party. So has Nick Griffin really changed?

There can be no doubting the unsavoury background from which Griffin emerges. It is deep rooted in his family history. His parents met while heckling a Communist Party meeting in north London in 1948. Nicholas John Griffin, who was born a decade later, was as a boy reputedly given by his grandfather some of the more anti-Semitic literature of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. While at private school in Suffolk aged 13, he was reading Hitler's Mein Kampf and making notes in the margins. "Adolf went a bit too far," Griffin conceded in 2006.

When Griffin was 15, his father Edgar took his son to his first National Front meeting. When he went up to Cambridge in 1977 to read history and law at Downing College, he founded the university's Young National Front Students group and soon rose through the ranks of the neo-fascist party. Within a year he had become national organiser.

But the National Front fell apart a decade later. Griffin was a key figure in the foundation of one of its successor factions, the International Third Position (ITP), advocating a blood-and-soil alternative to communism and capitalism. In it he praised the black separatist Louis Farrakhan, met David Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, travelled to Libya at the expense of Colonel Gaddafi and expressed support for Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini – who also had a strong dislike of Jews, women's rights, homosexuals, liberal democracy, international capitalism, Coca-Cola and McDonald's. >>> | Saturday, May 23, 2009

The British Political Élite and Media Quake in Their Shoes as BNP Show Signs of Making Significant Breakthrough in Upcoming European Election
After years and years of unbridled greed, uncontrolled immigration, Islamization of the United Kingdom, and generally ignoring the wishes of the electorate, are we about to witness a spectacular first: The rise of the far-right in British politics?

Whilst this may be regrettable in many ways, the powers that be cannot say they weren’t warned. People of influence have ignored the wishes of the people for far, far too long. In short, they’ve treated the electorate with disdain and contempt. They have also had a ball. In many cases, on the back of the taxpayer. The ball, however, may soon be over. All good things come to an end. – ©Mark

THE TELEGRAPH: Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, is poised to become a key figure in the creation of a new far-right group in the European Parliament.

Leader of the British National Party Nick Griffin. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Fears are growing he will be at the centre of a wave of victories in next month's elections that would give nationalist parties a firm foothold in Europe.

Searchlight, the international anti-fascist magazine, has suggested they could pass the threshold of 25 MEPs from seven countries necessary to form a European Parliament grouping entitled to public funding worth up to £1 million per year.

Over the last year, Mr Griffin has strengthened links to extremist European groups to prepare the way for a far-right surge at euro elections next month.

High-level Labour sources have told The Daily Telegraph that a high abstention rate, fuelled by popular disgust over the Westminster MP expenses scandal, could lead to the election of at least four BNP MEPs, including Mr Griffin.

Should Mr Griffin be elected in the North West region with at least three colleagues from the North East, East Midlands and London, he would be among those competing to become the leader of Europe's far right.

Other extremist groups in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy and Slovakia are expected to make major gains during the elections after using the economic crisis to stir up resentment against Roma gipsy minorities.

The French National Front already has four MEPs led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was stripped of parliamentary privileges this year because he described Auschwitz as a "detail of history" during a debate in March.

A new political grouping would be eligible for £5 million of public funding over the next five year term of the European Union assembly enabling it to promote political links across Europe and publicise their cause with "information" and conferences.

Gordon Brown and other senior government members are afraid that public disenchantment with politicians and the economic crisis will lead to low turnout during the elections on June 4 and will open the door to the BNP and other far-right extremists across Europe.

"Their strategy is not just ideological but ruthlessly practical," said a spokesman for Searchlight. "If they are able to get group status with their colleagues then they will have access to millions of pounds in resources, paid by the taxpayer, to fund their campaigns." BNP Could Be at Heart of Far-right EU Group >>> By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Friday, May 15, 2009