BNP fails to find support among European far-right parties

The British National Party’s first foray into Brussels ended in failure yesterday after it was unable find enough allies on the far-Right to form an official group in the European Parliament.

Nick Griffin, the party leader and one of its two newly elected MEPs, has agreed instead to work informally with a loose group of five ultra-nationalist parties, notably the Front National of the veteran French racist Jean-Marie le Pen.

Mr Griffin had pinned his hopes on persuading the nine MEPs of Italy’s Northern League to ally themselves with the smaller far-right parties, but was shunned by the party, led by Umberto Bossi and part of Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling coalition.

The failure to meet the threshold of 25 MEPs from at least seven countries to form a parliamentary group means the loss of up to a million euros a year for the far-right parties which could have been spent on staff, offices and publications in Brussels, Strasbourg and their home countries.

“It appears at present we are below the threshold,” said Mr Griffin, after talks at the European Parliament in Brussels with its key allies from France. He spent two days there with fellow Andrew Brons, his fellow party MEP. “We have to see how the other political groups get on with their negotiations and if they cannot do a deal whether they will deal with us.”

Mr Griffin said that he had had a friendly response from other MEPs and added: “Virtually everyone is here to do the best by their constituents and on that basis we will work with anybody.”

The ultra-nationalist parties interested in working together informally included Jobbik — the Movement for a Better Hungary — Vlaams Belang from Belgium (the Flemish Interest) and Attack from Bulgaria, he said. But despite the increased number of MEPs elected this month from the far-right end of the political spectrum, the BNP grouping could attract only 12.

Besides the Northern League’s nine MEPs, the putative group was also shunned by the anti-Islamic Dutch Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, which won four seats. Although banned from Britain for his outspoken views, Mr Wilders has also expressed his dislike of the Front National and Flemish Interest as he attempts to appeal to mainstream voters in Holland.

Similarly, the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party, regarded as right-wing nationalist, will not sit with the BNP or Mr Le Pen, who repeated his denial of the Holocaust in the last parliamentary session. The DPP, which has two MEPs, regards itself as more centrist and has been a coalition partner in the Danish Government.

Nobody, however, seems prepared to touch the Greater Romania Party, whose MEPs were involved in the break-up of the far-right Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty group in the last Parliament. They broke up the group after only 11 months in a row with Alessandro Mussolini, the daughter of Il Duce, after she called all Romanians criminals.

The Northern League has been vetoed by David Cameron from joining the new anti-federalist group being formed by the Conservatives with Czech and Polish MEPs. The Italian party may now link with the UK Independence Party as it tries to find at least six allies to meet the threshold for a formal group.

Parties are expected to declare their groupings in time for the European Parliament’s inaugural sitting on July 14.

Times Online

Rightwing SVP tightens grip in Swiss election

Switzerland's rightwing People's party, accused of racism and fanning Islamophobia, strengthened its position as the country's leading political force yesterday, gaining more than 2 percentage points to win a general election for the second time in a row, according to projections.

Led by the populist industrialist Christoph Blocher, the People's party, or SVP, was projected to have taken almost 29% of the vote, securing six more seats in parliament and two seats in the seven-strong cabinet that is always a coalition of the four strongest parties.

In a country where the glaciers are melting and concern about global warming is intense, the other big winner yesterday was the Green party which took 10% of the vote, according to the projections

For one of the oldest and most stable democracies in the world, the election campaign was unusually divisive because of Mr Blocher's contempt for traditional Swiss consensus and his breaking of taboos. The main opposition social democrats were the losers yesterday, after making the mistake of allowing Mr Blocher to dominate by calling for him to be kicked out of the cabinet whatever the result.

Mr Blocher is the justice minister in the outgoing federal cabinet and is expected to keep his place when a new government is appointed in December.

Yesterday's results illustrated two central points - that the SVP has probably peaked and is unlikely to increase its support after adding around a percentage point compared with 2003, but also that by winning its second election in a row, it has confirmed itself as the leading force in Switzerland and confounded opponents who had hoped that its performance in 2003 was a one-off.

Guardian

Swiss party accused of racist campaigning

Switzerland's biggest political party has come under fire for racist and xenophobic campaigning after its posters featured black sheep and its proposals to deport immigrants were likened by anti-racism campaigners to Nazi practices.

The nationalist People's party, which controls the lower house of the Swiss parliament, has run an advertising campaign showing three white sheep on a Swiss flag kicking out a black sheep with the caption "For more security".

The party, which controls the justice ministry and is part of Switzerland's coalition, is proposing a scheme to deport immigrant families if their children are convicted of a violent crime, drug offences or benefit fraud. It claims immigrants, which make up 20% of the population, are four times more likely to commit crimes than Swiss nationals.

The party is trying to collect the 100,000 signatures needed to force a referendum on the scheme. If approved, the law would be the only one of its kind in Europe. The party is also preparing for October elections, in which it is likely to retain its position as Switzerland's leading party.

Üli Maurer, the party's president, said: "As soon as the first 10 families and their children have been expelled from the country, then things will get better at a stroke."

Ronnie Bernheim, of the Swiss Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism, said the proposal was similar to the Nazi practice of Sippenhaft, or kin liability, whereby relatives of criminals were held responsible for their crimes and punished equally. He said the majority of Switzerland's immigrants were law-abiding. "If you don't treat a complicated issue with the necessary nuance and care, you won't do it justice," he said.

The UN special rapporteur on racism, Doudou Diène, asked the Swiss government for an explanation over the adverts. Earlier this year, Mr Diène published a report criticising the "racist and xenophobic dynamic" in Switzerland and warning that political parties were taking advantage of tensions over national identity.

The Swiss president, Micheline Calmy-Rey, a Social Democrat, called the posters "irresponsible" and liable to incite racial hatred.

The city authority in Geneva, where the UN has its European headquarters, has also protested. But the People's party's hardline stance on crime and immigration is likely to boost its vote.

Guardian