Headbangers get into the European Parliament

Seems the extreme Right is doing well in these European elections ... kick out foreigners/gypsies/illegals/Muslims/blah blah:

Far Right gains in 10 member stateshttp://euobserver.com/9/28263

Europe moves Righthttp://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5635102/far-right-parties-gain-support-in-eu/

I think that Vex and Vypra's area elected the head of the rabidly racist British National Party as their local MEP, too.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8088381.stm

Yeah, ok, politicians are all corrupt, the EU is ruling us all, expenses are out of hand, etc etc ... but still.

Yorkshire and Humber did as well.

I didnt even get a fucking voting card dispite being on the electrooolllo and everything - slightly pissed off at that.

Bah, extremely right doing good.
If Europe gets to right, I'm moving to northern Siberia

The Hungarian extreme right party, Jobbik has got almost 15% of the votes! I was really shocked to learn that.
But apparently Hungary is not the only country.
What's happening to Europe? :S

yeah, i'm bloody annoyed with the locals right now. although apparantly, the BNP actually got less votes this election then they did last time...just more than the labour candidate

I don't know. I'm incredibly biased but I quite like the whole emi/immigration thing that they seem to hate so very much.

(but then if I didnt I wouldnt have studied in Switzerland, met an iranian or be going to live in Sweden).

*hides*

lol, just heard that the BNP guy got chased by angry, anti-racism protesters in manchester

*gigglesnort

Not suprising imo, and not neccessarily as bad as it seems.

Maybe now the main parties and the country will have a serious debate about immigration instead of being too shit scared to talk about it for fear of being called rascist.

Just dumb that it takes a bunch of arseholes like this getting in to maybe make them think that maybe this is something that needs to be discussed openly.

I was just amused that there was a "Jesus is Lord" party. Whoever thought up that name deserves to spend a month in purgatory!

Vex, I think it kinda depends how you frame the debate you mentioned (on immigration).

For example, various government (Labour) ministers have tried to sound "tough" on immigration (points system, like Australia)/illegal immigrants/asylum seekers. My own view here, and it is shared by many other commentators, is that they are trying to out-do the BNP at its own game. I'm not sure that is the way to go.

As with crime, fear (of crime, of immigration) is often greater than the 'actualité'. This, in Orwellian terms, is where 'perception becomes reality' i.e. if enough people "believe" something to be true, then that very 'fact' makes it true. You may have facts and figures to say something just isn't correct, but when people "believe" it is correct, it doesn't matter. Seemingly rational people -- business people, working man, whomever -- can IMO and experience often jettison the logic which they seem so proud to use elsewhere in life, when it comes to Belief (religious, ideological, etc).

If we were able to have an honest debate about immigration -- which as I say above, I contend is already happening -- and not just lurch to the Right without thought, then I'm all for it. I've been on the white, working class estates in Barking, Dagenham, Colne, Blackburn, Preston, Sheffield, Bradford and elsewhere, and heard all the opinions. As ever, reality is far more complex a mix than any newspaper or BNP headline; a majority of people I meet and listen to, however, want and prefer reality reduced to those soundbites, and for someone to take charge and make it all simple.

Go too far down that road and eventually you get to Rwanda, Kosovo, Hitler, Stalin or whomever. We're not there by a long way, and I just wish the people lamenting things here could travel and see life elsewhere, in order to make a valid comparison with the flaws of their own democracy. We are far too blasé about hard-won democracy.

Well yeah Oppy, I will defer to your knowledge on this one.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that in my opinion the only way a party like the BNP can succeed is because they play on these fears and because people do not feel like these issues are being discussed by the mainstream parties. I honestly do think there is a lot wrong with immigration. Maybe you are right and it is indeed overplayed by sections of the media.

However, to my mind when you have people being told they can't have cancer drugs because it is too expensive, whilst at the same time you have people coming over here to sponge of benefits and not even learn English, there is something wrong. Let's face it, there are enough whiteys in the UK with no desire to work or achieve anything other than living on benefits, without taking on freeloaders from other countries as well.

I have no idea who got elected in Slovakia, but all the canditates were kinda meh, so it won´t be a big win either way.

Right wing won elections for european seats here... wich kinda worries me, we have a central left wing government that got majority of votes when elected, but tons of critics in the latter three years due to budget-cuts policy... portuguese people aren't the least bit patient, they want results on the table right away, and the right wing party has already begun to sharp their tongues with this victory... government elections are close and if those fascists happen to win i can really see them sinking democracy already...

we suffered a extreme right wing dictatorship regime 'till 74 when we finally broke free from repression in a non-violent revolution... yet most of the new generation portuguese kids can't even tell you the name of that revolution or what it stood for...

The great thing about having right wing idiots in Europe is that they will all hate each other for being foreign and this whole European Union bollocks will fall apart!