European far-right parties want referendum on Turkey in EU
Europe's far-right parties want an EU-wide referendum on Turkey's plans to join the current 27-nation bloc, the leader of Austria's populist Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache, said today.
Strache, who had invited right-wing parties from Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Slovakia and Sweden to a two-day meeting in the Austrian capital, told a news conference that the parties believed Turkey had no place in Europe and ordinary citizens should be given a say in the matter.
Europe would be "straying down the completely wrong path" if it were to admit "non-European countries" into the European Union, the far-right party leader said.
"That would be the end of the European Union. It would be the beginning of a Euro-Asian-African Union, which goes completely against the project of peace in Europe and must therefore not be allowed," Strache said.
Under the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which came into effect in December 2009, a Europe-wide referendum can be held if a million people in a "substantial number of member countries" call for one.
But it is not clearly defined what a "substantial number" would be, Strache pointed out.
Attending the two-day meeting were Fiorello Provera from Italy's Northern League, Morten Messerschmidt from the Danish People's Party, Bruno Valkeniers, head of Belgium's Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang party as well as its founder Filip Dewinter, August Lang of the Slovak National Party, and Kent Ekeroth of the Sweden Democrats.
Other far-right parties, such as France's National Front, the Dutch FVV party of Geert Wilders, Hungary's Jobbik, Bulgaria's Ataca and Greece's LAOS did not attend.
The aim of the meeting was to develop new contacts, said Andreas Moelzer of Austria's Freedom Party or FPOe.
In municipal elections in Vienna on October 10, the FPOe saw its support nearly double to 27 percent fromm 15 percent.
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Ramon Casha
Oct 24th 2010, 16:18
I have a better idea. Let's have a referendum on far-right groups in the EU.
colin stanley
Oct 24th 2010, 20:14
I don't know how long you have been in Malta, but before we jioned the EU, everytime a politician( PN.) talked about Europe they always mentioned the E uropean Christian Values. are you saying that they used to lie to us ?
Robert Callus
Oct 24th 2010, 11:21
The main objection for Turkey from the EU (and rightly so) is its human rights record. This is partly due to extreme Nationalism. For example in Germany it is illegal to deny the Holocaust, while in Turkey, the govt itself denies the Armenian genocide. Thus, while it is understandable that many EU citizens do not want Turkey, it is ridiculous that it has to be the right wing extremists. If I think the way they do, I would feel proud of Turkey.
Stephen Farrugia
Oct 24th 2010, 00:47
The idea of entering Turkey into the EU is to break up the union of European nations and the euro currency. It is a well known plot or plan by Europe's competitors to cause problems of a serious nature with Turkey's entry.
The British had already used this trick to use Turkey for this reason but this time it is in the interest of the USA's Federal Reserve circle to play this card. The same people that print money and who never controlled their 'failed' investment banks ( never had one penny) to bankrupt the worlds banks. Politics of dirty tricks at the highest level.The 'Madoff tribe' are still busy at work using economics and politics as a weapon.
Stephen Farrugia ( Right-wing Social Democrats)
Mark Scerri
Oct 24th 2010, 00:09
Same opinion here.Turkey should never be accepted as an EU member.
colin stanley
Oct 23rd 2010, 22:47
Where does the EU border end, maybe in Iran? where are the EU's Christian Values, that we were told before we jioned.Turkey is not European, most probably they need Turkey, for other reasons !!!
Ramon Casha
Oct 24th 2010, 16:19
The EU does not have Christian values. It has values that managed to survive despite Christianity.
J. Parnis
Oct 23rd 2010, 22:30
Agree, but above all, the same must apply, if not with an even more decisive battle, the absurd / dangerous suggestion of Israel joining E.U.
Ramon Casha
Oct 24th 2010, 16:20
Actually, historically Turkey has often been counted as a European nation, whereas Israel never has.
malcolm seychell
Oct 23rd 2010, 20:30
They are right.
Turkey should never form part of the EU
Martin Farrugia
Oct 24th 2010, 01:10
Turkey is a democracy, it is profoundly secular, and has a functioning free market economy. That on its own makes it more 'European' than Italy. It has participated fruitfully in several NATO peacekeeping missions including against its muslim brethen in Afghanistan and Iraq. Turkey disallows overt public expressions of religious affiliation - including islam - and allows divorce. The human rights record of Turkey - while it is certainly worthy of condemnation - is still much better than the same record for Spain or Greece 30 years ago. As for geography, if Cyprus is in Europe, then so is Turkey.
The Malcolm Seychells who are still living in the crusades should learn a bit of history and understand that Turkey, Malta and the rest of the world have changed a lot since then and more Turkish blood has been shed in defence of our cherished western civilization than you can even begin to imagine.
colin stanley
Oct 24th 2010, 13:46
@Martin Farrugia. What's Nato got to do with Europe, so America can jion too., and Russia.