Far right parties in the EU fragmented

With growing fear of the increase in representation of far right parties in the European Parliament following next week’s elections, the likelihood of their forging a coherent political grouping in the assembly is expected to be low.

The EU Observer notes a blog by Simon Usherwood on the future of European parliamentary groupings in the face of an expected increase in far right support across Europe in the May elections.

While anti-EU parties are likely to come out on top in their respective countries, including in the UK where UKIP has been leading the polls, Usherwood notes the constraints upon far right parties to mobilise together in a single bloc.

As noted in our election manifesto, the European Parliament has attempted to control the exploitation of institutional resources by far right groupings by introducing tighter rules on procedure governing the thresholds of forming a group. The European Commission also introduced new regulations to register European political parties as legal entities as well as new guidelines to prevent parties from undermining Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union which espouses the fundamental values of the Union including “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”

The EU Observer notes UKIP’s European allies in the Europe for Freedom and Democracy (EFD) party of which it is a member. The political grouping, led by Farage, includes a number of MEPs whose views on Muslims and other minorities in Europe are disgraceful. Although Farage expelled EFD member, Mario Borghezio last year for further racist comments and has attempted to distance himself from Le Pen and Wilders and the idea of a pan-European far right alliance, ongoing media scrutiny and the revelations of UKIP members espousing anti-Muslim sentiments has only heightened concerns about the party’s claims to not being ‘racist’.