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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Poland, UK’s Farage dash far-right hopes

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WARSAW/BRUSSELS: Far-right parties’ hopes of forging a powerful new eurosceptic bloc in the European Parliament suffered a double blow on Wednesday when Poland’s ruling nationalists and Britain’s Brexit Party both said they would not join such a grouping.


Italy’s far-right League was one of the biggest winners in last month’s EU elections and its leader, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, has sought to persuade Europe’s nationalist parties to set aside their differences and form a 10-party European Alliance for People and Nations in the new assembly.


Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s conservative ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), ruled out joining on account of the pro-Russian stance of Salvini, France’s National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen, and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.


Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, which won 29 of Britain’s 72 seats in the European Parliament, also said it would not join the putative new grouping, though it gave no reason. Britain is due to quit the EU on October 31 but its lawmakers will join the European Parliament in July and stay until Brexit happens.


Expressing his scepticism about Salvini’s plans, Kaczynski told Polish private Radio Wnet: “When it comes to Mr Salvini, here we have a problem that he wants to create a new group with formations that we aren’t able to accept.”


“This is a group called National Rally belonging to Ms Le Pen. It’s also the Alternative for Germany,” he said. “This is something that we cannot accept under any circumstances.”


 — Reuters


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