European far-right parties team up against Islam and Brussels

Six European far-right parties joined forces Thursday to combat immigration and European bureaucracy ahead of 2014 elections, French newspaper Liberation reported.

The parties, which include France’s Front National, are teaming up against two common enemies: Brussels and Islam, the newspaper said. The Netherlands’ PVV, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang, Italy’s Liga Norte, Swedish democrats and Austria’s Freedom Party met at a hotel in Vienna to discuss the outlines of their collaboration.

The meeting happened in secret so as not to attract the attention of possible demonstrators, the paper said, and to be able to devote their time to strategizing about the future of the far-right in Europe.

But Andreas Mölzer, the organizer of the meeting and an Austrian member of the European Parliament, confirmed the meeting took place. “The points that unite us are more important than those that separate us,” he told Liberation.

The National Front declined to comment for this story.

Vlaams Belang’s Filip Claeys told Flemish newspaper De Morgen he would join the meeting the next day. “We are going to define a number of themes tomorrow to go to voters together,” Claeys said. “Think migration and the extension of the European Union.”

The politicians aim to form a political party in the European Parliament, the newspaper reported, for which they need 25 representatives from seven countries. They also wish to draw up a common list of issues to address in parliament, as well as smooth over their differences from the past.

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Le Pen launches plan to unite the far right

Marine Le Pen (8)Europe’s far-right parties are set to contest next year’s European elections on a common manifesto, according to French National Front leader Marine Le Pen.

At a press conference in the Strasbourg Parliament on Wednesday (23 October), Le Pen, flanked by Franz Obermayr of the Austrian anti-immigration Freedom party, told reporters that she was hopeful of persuading nationalist candidates from across the EU to run on the ticket of the European Alliance for Freedom (EAF).

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Louboutin wins case against Vlaams Belang, who respond by launching new anti-Islam poster

Anke Van dermeersch with new poster

Belgian anti-Islam campaigners must remove all posters featuring the stilettos of the luxury French footwear designer Christian Louboutin after a court ruled in the company’s favour on Monday.

The poster promoted by the campaign group “women against Islamisation” showed the legs of Anke Vandermeersch, a former Miss Belgium and now a senator for the far-right Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party.

Beside the image of her wearing the shoes, a key showed what it claimed was Islam’s view of a woman, as measured by the length of her skirt, from “sharia compatible” at floor level to “whore” just above the knee and “stoning” at the top of the thigh.

Louboutin said it had not authorised the use of its shoes in the campaign and that their inclusion damaged the company’s image. The group must remove all its posters within 24 hours, the court in Antwerp ruled.

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Vlaams Belang stunt backfires

Vlaams Belang Freedom or Islam posterLast year the Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang launched a new front organisation, Women Against Islamisation, with a poster featuring party leader Filip Dewinter’s teenage daughter wearing a bikini and a veil.

Evidently pleased with the publicity generated by this stunt, last week VB followed it up with a new poster featuring a photograph of Anke Van dermeersch, the former Miss Belgium who is leader of the VB group in the Belgian senate, hitching her skirt up her legs. Various hem-lengths are marked, with “stoning” at the top and “sharia-compliant” at floor level. The photo is accompanied by the same slogan that appeared on last year’s poster – “Freedom or Islam?”

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Arson attack on Belgian mosque

Colfontaine arson

Le JDM reports that on Saturday night two bottles containing inflammable liquid were thrown at the front of the Émir Abdelkader Mosque in Colfontaine, a French-speaking commune in Belgium. The firebombs didn’t penetrate the building and neighbours quickly intervened.

Although no serious damage was caused, the president of the mosque’s management committee, Abdelkader Ben Safi, told Télévision Mons Borinage that the local Muslim community was very shocked. He suggested that the attack was explained by a general rise in Islamophobia, which “gives some people ideas”.

Wilders to build further links with European far right

Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration PVV, is hoping to work together with Swedish and Italian nationalist parties as well as Belgium’s Vlaams Belang and the Front National in France, Nos television reports.

Wilders, who has made no secret of his contacts with the Belgian and French nationalists, told Nos he has now had contact with the Eurosceptic Sweden Democrats and will also meet officials from the Lega Nord in Italy.

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Ghent: Socialists and Greens overturn hijab ban

The Belgian city of Ghent has scrapped its ban on civil servants wearing headscarves after its Socialist and Green majority overturned a measure imposed in 2007 when center-right parties dominated the city council.

More than 10,000 adult citizens, or about five times the number required to call the vote, had signed a petition calling for the prohibition to be lifted.

After a four-hour debate lasting almost until midnight on Monday, 29 of the city council’s 51 members voted to rescind the ban on the wearing of religious or political symbols for city officials dealing with the public.

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US panel slams Europe’s ‘aggressive secularism’

USCIRF Annual Report 2013A US panel criticized Western European countries Tuesday for “aggressive secularism” as it released a report on religious freedom that took aim at laws banning full-face veils in public.

For the first time, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom — whose members are appointed by the government — included a chapter on the region in its annual review of tolerance of other faiths around the world.

Because Western Europe generally has a very good record, “it’s easy to overlook the fact that there are some questions and problematic issues emerging there” related to religious dress and customs, commission chair Katrina Lantos Swett told reporters. “In some countries a very aggressive secularism is putting people of religious faith in uncomfortable and difficult positions.”

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Wilders meets with Le Pen, proposes electoral alliance with other far-right parties

Geert WildersAnti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders is looking to form an alliance with other similarly-minded parties, including France’s Front National, to fight next year’s European elections, the Volkskrant reports on Saturday.

Wilders, who leads the PVV in parliament, recently met Front National leader Marine Le Pen for lunch to discuss his ideas for a pan-European approach. “We think the same about 90% of things, perhaps more,” Wilders said in the Volkskrant interview. “We also have a lot of points of agreement in terms of immigration.”

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Belgium: liberals echo far right in calling for action against elected Muslim politicians

Philip Claeys and Nick Griffin at Finsbury Park mosqueBelgian politicians have submitted a proposal to impeach or limit the influence of Muslim extremists in power. MPs fear that Muslim politicians do not shake hands with women and are creating an isolated community.

Alain Destexhe, a liberal member of the Federation Wallonia-Brussels, and Deputy Mayor of Koekelberg Philippe Pivin submitted the proposal in front of the Belgian Parliament on Wednesday to exclude extremist parties from a range of local functions. The proposal is currently open for signatures by other members of Parliament.

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