The European Parliament finally has an Official Opposition
It’s finally happened. The European Conservatives and Reformists held their inaugural meeting today in an atmosphere of unprecedented amity and optimism. It is one thing to read about the ECR on paper, another to sit among its members. Here was as sober and respectable a gathering as you will find in Brussels: ex-ministers, professors of economics, former diplomats. Six of the nine participating parties are in government in their home countries. Some Leftie papers none the less continue to level the juvenile charge that there is David Cameron is linking up with crackpots. (To see the charge-sheet and its rebuttal, read this). A new low is reached today by the Spiegel. Quoting such impartial sources as Labour politicians and EPP spokesmen, the German magazine outrageously claims: “The Conservatives’ new motto seems to be ‘Rather fascists than federalists’” Fascists? Perhaps Spiegel means the Austrian Freedom Party? Oh no, hang on, they’re not in the group. What about their occasional coalition partners, the Austrian People’s Party? Nope: they’re in the EPP. Gianfranco Fini’s “post-fascist” Alleanza Nazionale, then? Er, they’re in the EPP, too. Odd, isn’t it, that pro-Brussels parties are somehow inoculated against the possibility of extremism, when plenty of fascists down the years have been enthusiastic Euro-integrationists. In fact, the Euro-fanatical EPP, which we’ve just left, has plenty of anti-gay, anti-gipsy and anti-immigrant parties (see here). Ah, never mind the taunts: they pass me by as the idle wind that I respect not. The truth is that ECR is a growing political force. Two new parties joined today, and more may follow. Indeed, it’s starting to look as though we shall hold the balance of power in the new Parliament. Those Tories who had wanted to stay in the EPP have embraced the ECR with loyalty, generosity and largeness of spirit. The thorn in the flesh of our delegation has been extracted, and I’ve rarely felt so proud to be a Conservative MEP. We now have a mechanism in place to advance a wholly different vision of Europe: one based on free people, free markets and free nations. The best is to come. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100000896/the-european-parliament-finally-has-an-official-opposition/
It’s finally happened. The European Conservatives and Reformists held their inaugural meeting today in an atmosphere of unprecedented amity and optimism. It is one thing to read about the ECR on paper, another to sit among its members. Here was as sober and respectable a gathering as you will find in Brussels: ex-ministers, professors of economics, former diplomats. Six of the nine participating parties are in government in their home countries. Some Leftie papers none the less continue to level the juvenile charge that there is David Cameron is linking up with crackpots. (To see the charge-sheet and its rebuttal, read this). A new low is reached today by the Spiegel. Quoting such impartial sources as Labour politicians and EPP spokesmen, the German magazine outrageously claims: “The Conservatives’ new motto seems to be ‘Rather fascists than federalists’” Fascists? Perhaps Spiegel means the Austrian Freedom Party? Oh no, hang on, they’re not in the group. What about their occasional coalition partners, the Austrian People’s Party? Nope: they’re in the EPP. Gianfranco Fini’s “post-fascist” Alleanza Nazionale, then? Er, they’re in the EPP, too. Odd, isn’t it, that pro-Brussels parties are somehow inoculated against the possibility of extremism, when plenty of fascists down the years have been enthusiastic Euro-integrationists. In fact, the Euro-fanatical EPP, which we’ve just left, has plenty of anti-gay, anti-gipsy and anti-immigrant parties (see here). Ah, never mind the taunts: they pass me by as the idle wind that I respect not. The truth is that ECR is a growing political force. Two new parties joined today, and more may follow. Indeed, it’s starting to look as though we shall hold the balance of power in the new Parliament. Those Tories who had wanted to stay in the EPP have embraced the ECR with loyalty, generosity and largeness of spirit. The thorn in the flesh of our delegation has been extracted, and I’ve rarely felt so proud to be a Conservative MEP. We now have a mechanism in place to advance a wholly different vision of Europe: one based on free people, free markets and free nations. The best is to come. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100000896/the-european-parliament-finally-has-an-official-opposition/