Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Far-right hopes to form European bloc

|
|
 
  
Published: Oct. 24, 2006 at 12:19 AM

BRUSSELS, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Leaders of far-right nationalist parties hope to form a bloc in the European Parliament this year.

The potential members include France's National Front, the Flemish Vlaams Belang Party in Belgium, the Austrian Freedom Party, the Italian Movimento Sociale Fiamma Tricolore and Lega Nord and the League of Polish Families, the EU Observer reports.

To become a recognized bloc, the parties would need a total of 19 members of the parliament from five countries.

Jean Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, plans to hold a three-day conference near Paris for the parties.

Frank Vanhecke, chairman of Vlaams Belang and a member of the European Parliament, said that he is hopeful of success but not counting on it.

"I've been in European circles long enough to be realistic and sceptical on the eventual outcome. We've tried this five times before and at those times it looked as good as it looks now," he said.

One previous attempt was rejected on the grounds that the proposed bloc did not have a political platform. Leaders say they now have one, including opposition to Turkey's EU membership and to non-European immigration.

Topics: Jean-Marie Le Pen
© 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade The making of the Oscars
The Chicago Auto Show The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Tu Bishvat Migron settlement
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 21
President Obama Signs Smuggling Prevention Act at White House
View Caption
fark
Man breaks into home, then vacuums and folds laundry (possibly with a menacing scowl on his face)...
It's starting to look as if the roles are now reversed - that Obama is Lucy with the football, and...
You're a female air traveler and there's no female TSA agent to screen you? No problem, there's...
Despite their efforts to convince you otherwise, many "foodies" can't, in a blind taste test, tell...
Photoshop this urban underground dweller
Kim Jong Un Dead. I repeat - Un Dead