by David Charter
THE extraordinary expenses and second home revelations have turned the European elections from the traditional free vote against the Government into something not seen before in modern British politics: a battle between mainstream and extreme. Tory and Labour candidates alike are facing the strongest abuse on the doorsteps that they can remember, while UKIP has undergone a dramatic revival which even a month ago looked impossible.
It is a pattern repeated to some extent across Europe in the wake of the economic crisis and the loss of confidence in centrist parties, giving rise to the Nouveau Partie Anticapitaliste in France and strengthening Die Linke in Germany. The surge in support for so-called fringe candidates has inevitably led to speculation that the far right will be able to have anther stab at forming its own group in the European Parliament, despite the bar being raised from 20 to 25 MEPs and from seven countries instead of six.
Even more alarmingly, the British National Party would be a main player in such a group if it managed to get four MEPs – which some, including Labour’s veteran anti-fascist campaigner Glyn Ford, have been warning of for months.
A formal neo-fascist group would bring a much greater level of visibility, with guaranteed speaking rights in all debates, as well as substantial public funding – probably as much as £1 million a year for secretarial and office support.
Besides the BNP, the group might include the Front National from France, the Forza Nuova from Italy, the Austrian Freedom Party, Flemish Interest from Belgium, the Movement for a Better Hungary, the Greater Romanian Party and Attack from Bulgaria.
And with greater prominence will come greater pressure, too. The last attempt to create a far right bloc, the short-lived Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty formed in the last parliament, broke up after 11 months in a row about – of all things – xenophobic insults. The Greater Romanian MEPs stormed out in protest at remarks by Alessandro Mussolini, granddaughter of Il Duce, who said that all Romanians were criminals. Mussolini has now been replaced, which may help a rapprochement.
Nick Griffin, the Cambridge graduate who leads the BNP, is wary of admitting to talks with continental soulmates – and for good reason. It would surely undermine his careful attempt to conceal the BNP’s deep racist roots for it to be known that he consorts with Roberto Fiore of Forza Nuova, a fascist MEP who campaigns for the wholesale expulsion of Roma from Italy and who left Italy in the 1980s to avoid the investigation into the bombing of Bologna train station in which 85 died.
Of course, Griffin is not the only leader who has been shy about discussing future allies in the European Parliament. David Cameron is refusing to confirm the new friends he is making in order to form the anti-federalist right-wing group he promised during his leadership campaign.
Besides the Czech ODS – which recently passed the Lisbon Treaty – Cameron’s pals are understood to include the Polish Law and Justice Party and Latvia’s Fatherland and Freedom. Both these parties are unashamedly homophobic, having banned gay pride marches. The Latvians – some of whose MPs support an annual celebration of the country’s Waffen SS unit – would probably be better off with the BNP.
David Charter is Europe correspondent of The Times
