Libertas and the far right

lostexpectation

http://www.examiner.ie/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=sport-qqqm=sport-qqqa=sport-qqqid=83402-qqqx=1.asp

Members of the Libertas political party, according to their membership application to the parliament are:

* Lord Alton of Liverpool, a former teacher and son of an Irish speaking mother from the west of Ireland who is very active in anti- abortion circles and was author of a chain letter distributed by independent MEP Kathy Sinnott.

* Viscount Philippe le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon, MEP and leader of the Catholic conservative party, Mouvement pour la France noted for his anti-Islamist views and his wish to restore the franc.

* Paul Marie Couteaux, MEP who would like to see France distancing itself from the union.

* Georgios Georgiou, 72, Greek MEP, a member of the People’s Orthodox Rally, that has moved recently from being anti-semitic to advocating gay rights.

* Timo Soini, of the True Finns Party that has five seats in the Finnish Parliament and been accused of xenophobia, which he denies as a devoted Catholic.

* Igor Grazin a member of the Estonian parliament for the eurosceptic Estonian Reform Party, was a member of the last USSR Congress of People’s Deputies.

* Mincho Kuminev, one of 20 independent members of the Bulgarian parliament elected in mid 2005.

* Cyprian Gutkowski, a number of the regional assembly of Mazovia, Poland. A supporter of MEP Maciej Giertych, 72, of the League of Polish Families who was censured in the EP for his booklet suggesting the Jews were biologically different.

Lord Alton of Liverpool holds both a British and Irish passport, is a well-known campaigner for the pro-life movement. He was also the author of a chain letter recently distributed by independent MEP Kathy Sinnott, which urged an anti-abortion novena.

Mr Gutkowski is deputy chief of All-Polish Youth, a radical group attached to the far right League of Polish Families, famous for attacking gay rights marches in Poland. Mr Soini is founder of the anti-immigrant True Finns party, which has five seats in the Finnish parliament.

now we know suspected that declan ganley was far right megalomaniac and now we thanks to him we have the proof.

look at this collection of dangerous cranks and fringe groups he's thrown together.

i think it gives more an indication of his mind, under that shiny veneer.

he ain't no mere conservative businessman, judge a man by the company he keeps.

Hitman Actual

As a follow-on to above, Libertas don't quite have official status as an EU party yet. The Estonian politician Igor Grazin is denying signing their application. Strange turn of events.

oscarBravo

That's an interesting story, alright. Ganley and Bonde willing to swear that he signed it, but him denying it - someone's lying, but who?

Scofflaw

oscarBravo wrote: »

That's an interesting story, alright. Ganley and Bonde willing to swear that he signed it, but him denying it - someone's lying, but who?

Hmm...I would certainly consider Bonde honest in every sense but intellectually honest. I don't know Grazin, but his is the less likely story of the two.

dubiously,
Scofflaw

Hitman Actual

It seems that Grazin definitely put his name to something, but not with the intention of joining Libertas, only helping them to achieve the necessary seven member state signatures. (Source) I wouldn't be surprised if he just wants to distance himself from them now, seeing as they're just evolving into another bog-standard eurosceptic party. Grazin or his party don't seem like they fit in with the usual eurosceptic ideal. He did vote against the EU constitution (out-voted 73-1 in Estonia!), but if wikipedia is to be believed (sorry for the weak link), Grazin is:

wikipedia wrote:

Politically: strong proponent of unified and integrated energy policy in EU.

Scofflaw

lenny_leonard wrote: »

It seems that Grazin definitely put his name to something, but not with the intention of joining Libertas, only helping them to achieve the necessary seven member state signatures. (Source) I wouldn't be surprised if he just wants to distance himself from them now, seeing as they're just evolving into another bog-standard eurosceptic party. Grazin or his party don't seem like they fit in with the usual eurosceptic ideal. He did vote against the EU constitution (out-voted 73-1 in Estonia!), but if wikipedia is to be believed (sorry for the weak link), Grazin is:

Politically: strong proponent of unified and integrated energy policy in EU.

Hmm...but that's something Ganley is also a strong proponent of, isn't it? One of the few 'policy' papers on the Libertas website was an energy policy one.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Hitman Actual

Scofflaw wrote: »

Hmm...but that's something Ganley is also a strong proponent of, isn't it? One of the few 'policy' papers on the Libertas website was an energy policy one.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Really? I assume you're not referring to US military air refueling or anything along those 'energy policy' lines (tin-foil hat off), but I'm not aware of any policy paper, or anything else of substance, from Libertas. And it can't be found on the web now anyway.

Scofflaw

lenny_leonard wrote: »

Really? I assume you're not referring to US military air refueling or anything along those 'energy policy' lines (tin-foil hat off), but I'm not aware of any policy paper, or anything else of substance, from Libertas. And it can't be found on the web now anyway.

It has certainly disappeared - here's a view of the old site (Google cache) - you can see the prominent menu reference to Energy, and the link at bottom left to their policy, but that link (unlike other old ones) now 404's.

The item was called the Libertas Energy Initiative. All I can find at the Internet Archive is the following:

The Libertas Energy Initiative
European Energy Innovation Fund

Context

The most recent OPEC meeting in Riyadh heard demands from Venezualan President Hugo Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to use its position for political ends and considered proposals to stop trading oil in the US dollar in response to the currency’s slide on international markets and to sell dollar currency reserves in favour of the euro and other baskets of currencies. Were this to happen, inflationary and interest rate pressure in the Eurozone would further dent already sluggish growth and, taken together with significantly higher oil prices could well spark a worldwide recession.

However, you can follow quite a few of the energy links from here.

cordially,
Scofflaw

turgon

You have to wonder though, why do Libertas even pretend they are pro-EU? Its the same old con that Kathy Sinnot pulls, and unfortunately rather successfully.

EDIT: And why does Ganley hate Dick Roche so much. I know the latter is a muppet, but every attack on the government of Ireland by Ganley seems leveled at him.

Scofflaw

turgon wrote: »

You have to wonder though, why do Libertas even pretend they are pro-EU? Its the same old con that Kathy Sinnot pulls, and unfortunately rather successfully.

They have to, at least in Ireland, because Ireland is pro-EU (even if not bothered to actually do much about it).

turgon wrote: »

EDIT: And why does Ganley hate Dick Roche so much. I know the latter is a muppet, but every attack on the government of Ireland by Ganley seems leveled at him.

No idea. I mean, I hate Dick Roche (although I think he's a good deal smarter than generally assumed), but I'm quite capable of reviling the government in a more general way.

cordially,
Scofflaw

lostexpectation

turgon wrote: »

EDIT: And why does Ganley hate Dick Roche so much. I know the latter is a muppet, but every attack on the government of Ireland by Ganley seems leveled at him.

because he's a loudmouth waffler who's very dismissive and hostile to the people of ireland has a loose interpretation of the truth and is minister for europe

nesf

turgon wrote: »

You have to wonder though, why do Libertas even pretend they are pro-EU? Its the same old con that Kathy Sinnot pulls, and unfortunately rather successfully.

Think about it, how many of the public are actually against EU membership in an absolute way and want to leave it? Any group who came out as anti-EU would scare off far too many people to be successful here.