Le Pen lends support to BNP
The far right British National Party (BNP) has joined forces with the leader of the French National Front for their European election campaign.
Leader of the Front Nationale, Jean-Marie Le Pen, will speak at a BNP-organised private fundraising dinner in the West Midlands on Saturday. The French politician, whose party opposes immigration into France, claims that he wants to increase the presence of the far-right in Europe, to ensure a stronger voice on the floor of the European Parliament.
Speaking to the BBC on Wednesday, BNP leader Nick Griffin said that a “nationalist” presence in the European parliament would have an impact on immigration policy.
“MEPs who aren’t in a bloc get very little chance to speak so at least we get a chance to put the nationalist point of view across,” he told the Today programme. “When the liberal-left politicians all over Europe find they really have now got a nationalist alternative there at the heart of Europe then I think we will see the same thing that has happened in Holland in the past two years.
“Once liberal Holland has now got the toughest asylum policies in Europe – this isn’t because the government there has had a change of heart, it’s because they are scared of the nationalists.”
BNP press officer Phil Edwards was asked by AFP what impact Mr Le Pen’s presence might cause in Birmingham, home to some of Britain’s largest immigrant and ethnic communities.
“I don’t care less if it’s controversial,” he replied. “It’s not being done to cause any problems. It’s a private function to meet a person whose party we hope to support in the European elections.”
Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, Kahlid Mahmood, called on mainstream politicians to take the BNP on and “exposed them for what they are: the party with no real policies other than disruption between communities”.
However, Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor cautioned against “pressing the panic button”.
“That kind of publicity is the only basis on which they have won – we don’t talk them up,” he explained.
Doug Jewel, secretary of the Birmingham branch of the Trades Union Congress, Britain’s main labour federation, said a peaceful rally would be held in the city on Sunday to protest against Mr Le Pen’s visit.
The European and local government elections will be held in Britain on June 10th.
