Far-Right EU Lawmakers Form Coalition

[Joanne98]

Far-Right EU Lawmakers Form Coalition
By JAN SLIVA
Associated Press Writer

January 14, 2007, 5:54 PM EST

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- A new far-right faction in the European Parliament will provide a platform for the movement to push some of its most important goals: limiting immigration and resisting the EU's drive for closer integration.

The formation of the Identity, Sovereignty and Tradition group, announced last week, brings together some big names from the fringes of European politics. Most prominent among them is France's Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is again running for president on a nationalist platform that plays on concerns about immigration, globalization and French sovereignty within the European Union.

Another standout in the first far-right faction in the European Parliament in more than a decade, is Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Italy's Fascist dictator.

Across Europe, nationalist parties have made gains in recent years in countries like Austria, Slovakia and Germany. In Belgium, the Flemish Interest Party is the strongest party in the country's Dutch-speaking north.

The far-right has a steady following in France, where Le Pen shocked the country -- and the continent -- when he beat the more mainstream Socialist candidate to move to the second round of the presidential election in 2002. In the current election, he is polling around 12 percent.

One of the group's central goals is to impose strict limits on immigration by playing on fears of job loss and a growing debate about the integration of Muslims, who make up a significant portion of immigrants to Europe, into Western societies.

The faction, to be officially established this week at a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, also seeks to reduce the influence of the EU, including opposing the adoption of a European constitution and any expansion of the bloc.

The faction's formation was only possible with the arrival of several right-wing lawmakers from Romania and Bulgaria, who joined the EU on Jan. 1.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-eu-far-right,0,3667020.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines