Far-right alliance fails to get EU cash

The European Alliance of National Movements (AENM), the coalition of far-right parties formed last month in Budapest, has failed in its an attempt to get its hands on European Parliament cash, as the jumble of reactionary rightists did not manage to file the application on time.

The alliance, which includes the UK's BNP, France's Front National and Hungary's Jobbik, says it wants its share of the around €11 million that the parliament hands out every year to pan-European political parties, informally known as ‘europarties'. This would have amounted to around €400,000 for the group to carry out advertising, research and campaigning atop the money MEPs already receive.

"Conservatives, socialists, Greens and communists all receive European funds. It is normal that we demand the same on behalf of our electors who have expressed their hopes," Front National MEP Bruno Gollnisch told reporters in the European capital announcing the Brussels launch of the group.

While the cluster of far-righters managed to cobble together the group in Budapest on 24 October, as earlier reported by EUobserver, the cut-off for 2010 funding was 1 November and so if the chamber does ultimately recognise the formation, it will still not be able to access any money until 2011.

Conceding that the group had fumbled the deadline, Mr Gollnish said: "The money is not the main purpose. While we want to get our share back, the share that is due the people who voted for us and sympathise with our goals, the real aim here is the formation of a political alliance where we can support each other."

Europarties vs. European Parliament groups

Pan-continental europarties are structurally distinct entities from the political families of MEPs in the Strasbourg chamber, though at the same time remain linked ideologically.

A grouping in the European Parliament requires a certain number of MEPs from seven EU member states; for a europarty, the rules are more relaxed and national MPs and regional representatives may also count towards the seven-country minimum. There is also no minimum number of deputies.

In the AENM's case, the alliance has had to depend very much on a tiny rightist groupuscules without MEPs: Belgium's Front National, which has one seat in the country's Chamber of Representatives and one seat in the Senate, and Italy's neo-fascist Fiamma Tricolore and Sweden's National Democrats. The former has a single deputy in the Umbrian regional assembly, while the latter has councillors in just two municipalities south of Stockholm. But municipal representatives do not count towards the europarty threshold.

Excluding the Swedes, the group only has deputies from five EU member states.

The BNP's Nick Griffin, however, says that he hopes to soon have on board far-right parties from Spain and Portugal - which have no MEPs either - as well as from Ukraine, but this would not count towards the total, as the country is outside the EU. Nevertheless, he also said that Austria's Freedom Party, which does have substantial support - it won 12.8 percent in the June elections, giving it two MEPs - may soon join.

Whites only

Once the alliance is legally registered, the Bureau of the European Parliament - the chamber's governing body - must rule on whether it meets the europarty regulations, which also demand an observation of "the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law."

"This could present a problem if certain parties are found to continue to refuse membership to certain ethnicities," Federico de Girolamo, a parliament spokesperson, told EUobserver. The BNP was ordered by a London court in October to end its internal whites-only policy.

Mr de Girolamo said however there was still a chance the alliance could eventually access EU funds if they meet all the rules.

"So long as [membership issues] are resolved, then there has to be a really good reason for them to be denied [europarty status]," he continued. "Democracy means including all opinions. We cannot be seen denying them this just because we don't agree with them."

Hungarian vs Slovak nationalisms

A major block to forming a larger group is the inability of the different far-right parties in the European Parliament and beyond, who often adhere to mutually exclusive national mythologies, to get along.

Hungarian MEP Balczo Zoltan, Jobbik's vice-president, angrily told journalists at the press conference that the alliance will never permit the inclusion of Slovak or Romanian nationalists, as their brand of nationalism was exclusionary of the wrong type of people.

"Millions of ethic Hungarians live [outside] Hungary and the Jobbik Movement for a Better Hungary will never work together with parties that are not patriotic or nationalist, but instead chauvinist. We will never work with the Slovak National Party or the Greater Romania Party. This is a declaration!"

The SNP does not restrict itself to inflammatory rhetoric about Roma, Jews and gays and lesbians, but also Hungarians. Jan Slota, the party's leader, has in the past said: "We will sit in our tanks and destroy Budapest," and: "Hungarians are a cancer in the body of the Slovak nation."

Greater Romania Party leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor, for his part, regularly rails against the alleged anti-Romania conspiracies of ethnic Hungarians.

EUObserver

German police search youth headquarters of far-right group

Police searched the headquarters of a far right group's youth wing Monday as part of an investigation into members allegedly circulating banned material, officials said.

The federal and state office of the Young National Democrats — the youth wing of the National Democratic Party known by its German initials NPD — were searched in a morning raid in the eastern city of Bernburg, in Saxony Anhalt, police said in a statement. At the same time, police also searched an apartment in the city that was shared by the three suspects in the case.

Two of the suspects — identified only as a 26- and 31-year-old — are being investigated on suspicion they posted the lyrics of a banned song on the group's Internet site, police said. The third suspect, a 29-year-old, is alleged to have run a mail-order business selling items with banned symbols on them, as well as CDs with banned songs.

In Germany it is illegal to display Nazi symbols like the swastika, or to distribute songs praising the era or inciting racial hatred. The police statement, however, gave no indication what the songs or items linked to the case were, and nobody was available for clarification at the police office involved.

The statement also did not mention whether any of the suspects were arrested.

In 2003, Germany's highest court blocked an attempt to ban the NPD by the government, which argued that the party incited hate crimes against foreigners and Jews. The court refused to hear the case because the government cited statements by party members who turned out to be paid informers for state authorities.

International Herald Tribune

Neo-Nazis clash near Prague’s Jewish quarter

1,400 police deploy but fail to stop rival demonstrators from fighting

Neo-Nazis trying to march through the Jewish quarter of Prague on Saturday clashed with groups trying to stop them, and at least 80 people were arrested in outbreaks of violence around the capital.

Police seized weapons including a gas gun, axes and sticks as the extremists tried to reach the Jewish quarter, police spokesman Ladislav Bernasek said. At least six people, including one policeman, suffered head injuries, said Prague rescue service spokeswoman Jirina Ernestova.

The march was scheduled a day after the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when the Nazis attacked synagogues and Jewish homes and businesses throughout Germany and parts of Austria. Authorities banned the march, and about 1,400 police were deployed in the capital, including riot police and officers on horses to prevent it. Equipped with armored vehicles and water cannons, they sealed off most of the historic Jewish quarter.

In a major clash downtown, a group of about two dozen neo-Nazis was attacked by people who said they were in the streets to prevent the march, Bernasek said. About 50 left-wing extremists attacked police with cobble stones in another area. In total about 80 people were detained around the city, including 10 German-speaking left-wing extremists armed with sticks, Bernasek said.

Jewish leaders and Czech politicians condemned the planned march as an insult to the victims of the Holocaust. Hundreds of Jews and others gathered in the historic Jewish quarter to commemorate the Nazi pogrom, protest the march and be ready, if it went ahead, to prevent it from going through the neighborhood.

We are here "to protest attempts of neo-Nazi groups to publicly promote anti-Semitic, racist and other abusive ideas," said Jiri Danicek, head of the federation of Jewish communities.

The march was organized by the Young National Democrats, which is linked to the National Resistance, a neo-Nazi group.

MSNBC