-:Undertaker:-
17-10-2013, 05:53 AM
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10382622/Marine-Le-Pen-hopes-to-create-pan-European-eurosceptic-movement.html
Marine Le Pen hopes to create pan-European eurosceptic movement
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's Front National, is travelling to the Netherlands to discuss establishing a pan-European eurosceptic movement.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02703/geert-marine_2703868b.jpg
Dutch PVV leader Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's Front National
Ms Le Pen hopes to reach an agreement with her Dutch counterpart, PVV leader Geert Wilders.
"The Front National and the PVV could make the europhile elite sing a different tune," said Mr Wilders, speaking on Dutch television this week. "We want to do whatever we can to turn the forthcoming European elections into a Europe-wide electoral landslide against Brussels."
Ms Le Pen will travel to the Netherlands next month, at the invitation of Mr Wilders, who leads the Freedom Party (PVV).
The pair are scheduled to talk about the possibility of creating a eurosceptic parliamentary grouping after the May 2014 European elections, with other possible recruits including the Northern League in Italy, the Austrian Freedom Party, Vlaams Belang in Belgium and the eurosceptic Democratic Party in Sweden.
Ms Le Pen recently told the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad that an alliance with the PVV would be useful electorally, adding: "It is important to show the voters that we are not isolated. That there are similar, patriotic movements active in every European country.".
There have also reportedly been efforts to collaborate through the organisation European Alliance for Freedom, which MEP Godfrey Bloom joined when he recently left the UK Independence Party.
However, Ukip leader Nigel Farage has distanced his party from any possible new 'far-right' alliance.
"I am sure that a new Eurosceptic group of parties comprising Marine Le Pen and Gert Wilders will happen. But Ukip will not be part of it.
"As a strictly non-racist and Libertarian party, Ukip will be ploughing our own furrow in Europe with other parties with which are happy to do business and make a principled stand against the EU's political union. "The European elections shall be a chance for people to give their views if they wish to remain in the EU or leave the EU and face towards global opportunities like Ukip."
Recent electoral success for the Front National in France has sent a wave of fresh doubt through the EU´s political establishment, which fears similar setbacks in other member states.
Even ardent European federalists now concede that as much as 30 per cent of the new Parliament will comprise Euro-sceptics seen to be capitalising on economic misery and record levels of unemployment across Europe.
Ms Le Pen´s party won a by-election in the Toulon region at the weekend and, with major municipal elections in France coming up in March and the European parliamentary ballots soon after, the victory puts both the Socialists and the UMP on notice to find ways to stem the rising popularity of the NF.
"She is not wandering alone in the desert," said Ludovic de Danne, her international affairs adviser. "If I were a federalist, I would be very, very frightened."
Anti-EU parties are already predicted to score heavily in Britain, France, the Netherlands, Austria and, perhaps, Germany in the European elections.
Opinion polls suggest that, with the help of low turnout, Ms Le Pen could top her European campaign and greatly enlarge the pool of MEPs with anti-EU views.
The existing Eurosceptic group in Brussels, Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD), is dominated by Ukip. Neither the French NF nor Mr Wilders' PVV – who have a handful of members in the European Parliament – belongs to the EFD.
If Ms Le Pen does as well as expected in May, it is predicted her party could have 20 seats or more. To form an official group in the Parliament – giving advantages of money and speaking time – 25 members are needed from seven countries.
While Ukip says it will not join any such movement, the party still needs MEPs from seven countries if it is to re-form the EFD after the election.
If the new, Front National-dominated alliance takes some delegations from EFD it is expected Ukip could have problems after the election in reforming the group.
While nationalist parties scored well in elections last year in Sweden, Hungary and Finland, history is not encouraging for Ms Le Pen and Mr Wilders. In 2007, 23 far-Right and nationalist MEPs formed a group called Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty. Within months, they had broken up after Alessandra Mussolini, an Italian MEP, insulted the Romanians.
A Parliament spokesman refused to be drawn on the issue, saying: "I don't think that we can comment on political moves. That's for the MEPs."
But a European Commission source conceded the alliance was probable.
"There is no getting away from the widespread concern that the prolonged economic crisis is contributing to increased nationalism, protectionism and euroscepticism," he said.
I edited the article and removed the references to 'far-right' in it referring to Le Pen and Wilders because anybody who actually knows anything about them both will know that Le Pen is pretty much to the left (especially on economic issues) whereas Wilders is very socially liberal on issues such as gay rights, womens rights and so on. So to use the slur word of far-right is unfair - although I would admit especially in the case of the Front National under her father, it was a very dodgy organisation which you could class as racist etc.
Surprised Farage is saying he isn't interested really, although it makes sense considering how warped this article was - and no doubt if he spoke out in favour he'd be hit over the head with it from now until May next year.
But yeah, very interesting. Polls in France, Britain and the Netherlands are showing the FN, UKIP and PVV topping the Euro polls next May and in other countries it's likely to be a given that eurosceptic parties will top the polls such as in Finland. The worrying thing is that in countries like Greece etc which have been utterly wrecked by the Euro, voters won't be turning to the likes of UKIP or the Front National: they'll be turning to the Nazi-like Golden Dawn and others.
The more I see of Marine Le Pen though, the more I like - although not her economic policies. :P
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10383879/Marine-Le-Pen-EU-will-collapse-like-the-Soviet-Union.html
The leader of France’s Front National party has vowed that the European Union would “collapse like the Soviet Union” as she conspired to form what would be the most radical faction yet seen in the European parliament.
Marine Le Pen, buoyed by a weekend by-election triumph in southern France, criticised the EU as a “global anomaly” and pledged to return the bloc to a “cooperation of sovereign states”.
She said Europe’s population had “no control” over their economy or currency, nor over the movement of people in their territory.
“I believe that the EU is like the Soviet Union now: it is not improvable,” she said. “The EU will collapse like the Soviet Union collapsed.”
Ms Le Pen, 45, will next month travel to Holland to chart a joint campaign with Geert Wilders, whose anti-radical Islam Freedom Party (PVV) currently tops national opinion polls for May’s European elections.
Together they aim to establish a pan-European, parliamentary grouping that would run on a pro-controlled immigration, anti-EU integration platform. Once in office its overriding aim would be to be as disruptive as possible.
She's right.
Thoughts?
Marine Le Pen hopes to create pan-European eurosceptic movement
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's Front National, is travelling to the Netherlands to discuss establishing a pan-European eurosceptic movement.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02703/geert-marine_2703868b.jpg
Dutch PVV leader Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's Front National
Ms Le Pen hopes to reach an agreement with her Dutch counterpart, PVV leader Geert Wilders.
"The Front National and the PVV could make the europhile elite sing a different tune," said Mr Wilders, speaking on Dutch television this week. "We want to do whatever we can to turn the forthcoming European elections into a Europe-wide electoral landslide against Brussels."
Ms Le Pen will travel to the Netherlands next month, at the invitation of Mr Wilders, who leads the Freedom Party (PVV).
The pair are scheduled to talk about the possibility of creating a eurosceptic parliamentary grouping after the May 2014 European elections, with other possible recruits including the Northern League in Italy, the Austrian Freedom Party, Vlaams Belang in Belgium and the eurosceptic Democratic Party in Sweden.
Ms Le Pen recently told the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad that an alliance with the PVV would be useful electorally, adding: "It is important to show the voters that we are not isolated. That there are similar, patriotic movements active in every European country.".
There have also reportedly been efforts to collaborate through the organisation European Alliance for Freedom, which MEP Godfrey Bloom joined when he recently left the UK Independence Party.
However, Ukip leader Nigel Farage has distanced his party from any possible new 'far-right' alliance.
"I am sure that a new Eurosceptic group of parties comprising Marine Le Pen and Gert Wilders will happen. But Ukip will not be part of it.
"As a strictly non-racist and Libertarian party, Ukip will be ploughing our own furrow in Europe with other parties with which are happy to do business and make a principled stand against the EU's political union. "The European elections shall be a chance for people to give their views if they wish to remain in the EU or leave the EU and face towards global opportunities like Ukip."
Recent electoral success for the Front National in France has sent a wave of fresh doubt through the EU´s political establishment, which fears similar setbacks in other member states.
Even ardent European federalists now concede that as much as 30 per cent of the new Parliament will comprise Euro-sceptics seen to be capitalising on economic misery and record levels of unemployment across Europe.
Ms Le Pen´s party won a by-election in the Toulon region at the weekend and, with major municipal elections in France coming up in March and the European parliamentary ballots soon after, the victory puts both the Socialists and the UMP on notice to find ways to stem the rising popularity of the NF.
"She is not wandering alone in the desert," said Ludovic de Danne, her international affairs adviser. "If I were a federalist, I would be very, very frightened."
Anti-EU parties are already predicted to score heavily in Britain, France, the Netherlands, Austria and, perhaps, Germany in the European elections.
Opinion polls suggest that, with the help of low turnout, Ms Le Pen could top her European campaign and greatly enlarge the pool of MEPs with anti-EU views.
The existing Eurosceptic group in Brussels, Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD), is dominated by Ukip. Neither the French NF nor Mr Wilders' PVV – who have a handful of members in the European Parliament – belongs to the EFD.
If Ms Le Pen does as well as expected in May, it is predicted her party could have 20 seats or more. To form an official group in the Parliament – giving advantages of money and speaking time – 25 members are needed from seven countries.
While Ukip says it will not join any such movement, the party still needs MEPs from seven countries if it is to re-form the EFD after the election.
If the new, Front National-dominated alliance takes some delegations from EFD it is expected Ukip could have problems after the election in reforming the group.
While nationalist parties scored well in elections last year in Sweden, Hungary and Finland, history is not encouraging for Ms Le Pen and Mr Wilders. In 2007, 23 far-Right and nationalist MEPs formed a group called Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty. Within months, they had broken up after Alessandra Mussolini, an Italian MEP, insulted the Romanians.
A Parliament spokesman refused to be drawn on the issue, saying: "I don't think that we can comment on political moves. That's for the MEPs."
But a European Commission source conceded the alliance was probable.
"There is no getting away from the widespread concern that the prolonged economic crisis is contributing to increased nationalism, protectionism and euroscepticism," he said.
I edited the article and removed the references to 'far-right' in it referring to Le Pen and Wilders because anybody who actually knows anything about them both will know that Le Pen is pretty much to the left (especially on economic issues) whereas Wilders is very socially liberal on issues such as gay rights, womens rights and so on. So to use the slur word of far-right is unfair - although I would admit especially in the case of the Front National under her father, it was a very dodgy organisation which you could class as racist etc.
Surprised Farage is saying he isn't interested really, although it makes sense considering how warped this article was - and no doubt if he spoke out in favour he'd be hit over the head with it from now until May next year.
But yeah, very interesting. Polls in France, Britain and the Netherlands are showing the FN, UKIP and PVV topping the Euro polls next May and in other countries it's likely to be a given that eurosceptic parties will top the polls such as in Finland. The worrying thing is that in countries like Greece etc which have been utterly wrecked by the Euro, voters won't be turning to the likes of UKIP or the Front National: they'll be turning to the Nazi-like Golden Dawn and others.
The more I see of Marine Le Pen though, the more I like - although not her economic policies. :P
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10383879/Marine-Le-Pen-EU-will-collapse-like-the-Soviet-Union.html
The leader of France’s Front National party has vowed that the European Union would “collapse like the Soviet Union” as she conspired to form what would be the most radical faction yet seen in the European parliament.
Marine Le Pen, buoyed by a weekend by-election triumph in southern France, criticised the EU as a “global anomaly” and pledged to return the bloc to a “cooperation of sovereign states”.
She said Europe’s population had “no control” over their economy or currency, nor over the movement of people in their territory.
“I believe that the EU is like the Soviet Union now: it is not improvable,” she said. “The EU will collapse like the Soviet Union collapsed.”
Ms Le Pen, 45, will next month travel to Holland to chart a joint campaign with Geert Wilders, whose anti-radical Islam Freedom Party (PVV) currently tops national opinion polls for May’s European elections.
Together they aim to establish a pan-European, parliamentary grouping that would run on a pro-controlled immigration, anti-EU integration platform. Once in office its overriding aim would be to be as disruptive as possible.
She's right.
Thoughts?