11/04/2014 Politics Europe


11/04/2014

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in Lebanon. Mr Dell' Utri has been accused of alleged collusion with

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the Mafia and was declared a fugitive on Friday.

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Now on BBC News it's time for Politics Europe.

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Welcome to Politics Europe. Your regular guide to the top stories in

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Brussels and Strasbourg. On today's programme: Anti` EU parties on the

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rise across Europe. We report from the Netherlands on why voters are

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turning against the European project. As grease returns to the

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bond market after four years, we ask, is the Greek economy on the

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mend? You want to join a group, but don't know which is which? Let me

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explain. With European elections on the rise, `` horizon, we bring you

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our guide to the groups in the EU parliament. All that to come and

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more in the next half hour. First, more trouble in Ukraine. Catalan

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independence and MPs rap for your vote. Here is our guide to the big

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stories of the week in 60 seconds. Greece jumped into the financial

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market with its sale of long`term government bonds since the economy

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almost collapsed four years ago. 3 billion euros sales was welcome news

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ahead of the visit to Athens from German Chancellor Algol a call.

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Tempers flaring Ukraine's parliament between opposing nationalist and

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separatist factions following a heated debate about pro`Russian

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activists using government `` seizing government buildings in

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several Ukrainian cities. Spanish MPs overwhelmingly vote against

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Catalonia 's bid for an independent referendum in a decision that is

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likely to increase the divide between both sides. Listed companies

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across the EU must get shareholder approval on pay for top executives

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under a draft law aimed at addressing public anger over large

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pay rises. Who says politicians aren't down with the kids? Members

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of the European Parliament have been in a rap battle to engage young

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voters. With us for the next 30 minutes I am joined by Martin

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Callahan, MP for the Conservatives and Katherine still are, MEP for

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labour. Let's look at one of the stories in detail. Grease. It

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managed to get its bond issue away. It is back in the bond market. I

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would suggest that this is partly because in the bond market, there is

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a search for a yield and Greece is offering a lot more than the Germans

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or the British or Americans. Greece. `` the country is mired in

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stagnation. You are right. It is difficult. It is to be welcome but

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it is a fragile state of affairs. We want to see them improve because of

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the austerity measures sacrificed on the Greek people. It is shocking.

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Terrible. If you speak to Greek colleagues, it this fragile news is

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to be welcomed. There is a long way to go. Is there a concern in the

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European Parliament about what are called the Club Med countries,

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Portugal, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, that they are on the verge of

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a deflationary trap? We saw this week earlier that prices in Spain

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are falling. Industrial production prices advocating Greece, Cyprus,

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Portugal, falling. The Eirene of the euro is that it was supposed to

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cement solidarity across Europe and it is doing the opposite of that ``

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the irony. Northern Europe is generally doing OK. But those

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countries are diverging. Greece is by no means out of the woods yet.

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They have unsustainable levels of debt. Someone will have to pay that.

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Resume and Lee from the eurozone countries. It is usually concerning.

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There is no obvious solution `` presumably. White you spoke of the

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sacrifices they have made. More than anyone else. As a result of this

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deflationary trend, which magnifies the level of public debt, their

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public debt is rising as a percentage of GDP. They have raised

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taxes and cut public spending, made people unemployed, at their debt has

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risen from 130% of GDP to 170% of GDP. We should acknowledge it has

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been a right`wing agenda of austerity that has been imposed on

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the Greek people. It would have been different if there was a different

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political flavour in power. (CROSSTALK) it was the Socialists in

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power when it went wrong in the first place. You need to accept that

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lessons are being learned. Banking unions show there will be reformed.

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You cannot escape from the fact that austerity measures imposed on the

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Greek people have been because of politics in play. That has been the

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dominance of right.. Debt is going up because they are locked into a

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currency union. Austerity means paying your way and balancing the

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books. The Labour Party may want to argue you can keep spending on

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spending without raising the money, but in France the Socialist were

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elected on an end to austerity. (CROSSTALK). Moving on. European

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elections Lexmark are the most recent since the crisis and has

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brought us close to the European collapse `` next. The fallout has

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led to frustration with the European project and right`wing parties like

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the French party, the Freedom party in the Netherlands and others are

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expected to do well, standing on an anti` EU platform.

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The EU dream has gone sour for some. Beljan dock workers joined trade

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unionists at this protest last week. Most rallied peacefully for the EU

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to work better. A few picked a fight with police. The talk here in

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Brussels is of an EU in trouble. Austerity, economic crisis and high

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unemployment in several countries is spawning disillusionment with the

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whole European project. In northern Europe, the anti` immigrant, anti`

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EU right light doing well. In southern Europe, the radical left

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are on the rise. While MEPs come back to the EU parliament after they

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elections, many will have won their seat because of their opposition to

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Brussels, even in countries that are traditionally very pro`European.

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Tolerant and liberal and green, the Netherlands popular cliche petals

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on. It was one of the founding countries of what is now the EU.

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Half an hour from Amsterdam at different politics has emerged. At

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the last European elections in 2009, the Freedom Park he won half the

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vote in this town. That is the party of Kurt filters, the hard Right

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peroxide head populist who rails against Muslims and the EU ``

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Freedom party. It won for MEPs and topped the poll in the Netherlands.

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Some will back in again. The Freedom party. Why? For free country. Lee it

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is terrible. These people take the jobs from Dutch people. It is not

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good. This place isn't buzzing with Euro election fever. Several people

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I have spoken to do not know there is a pole and none have `` many

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don't have an interest. What is surprising is that this pretty

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little town with tourists than teashops is somewhere where the far

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right have done well in the past. Look around, you don't see any black

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people over here. When the crowd called for fewer Moroccans in the

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Netherlands, this is what he said. The police received hundreds of

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complaints that he was inciting ritual hatred. His poll had shrunk.

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Tommo was a member of the party before being thrown out in 2010. ``

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Kurt Tomlin. He says the party has gone too far. The way he speaks

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about the Moroccans he will go to jail and he has to go to jail for

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it. It is too far. Let me put it in English, do you want less Welsh

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people? Do you want less Scottish people? Do you want less people from

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Europe? No, it's not possible. In France, Maria Lipman has tried to

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rebrand the National front. It suggests they will do well in the

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elections also. Builders has elected a pact of far right parties but the

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support could be fragile. Ukip is not a racist party and Nigel Farage

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is careful to say that. He is an end to a European party and is open to

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closed borders. This is what people in fenland and so on in Denmark are

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saying. Those likely to top the polls are saying we are not racist

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but we are anti` European `` Finland. We want less things done in

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Brussels. UKIP says it won't join the likes of Le Pen and builders in

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an EU parliamentary group. Here in the Hague, the centre coalition

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knows it and the EU must do more to rebuild trust. When you look at the

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next European Commission they should strengthening the single market,

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making trade agreements with other parts of the world and transferring

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powers from Brussels to the member state as the only way to preserve

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Europe for the future. FIFA white in the Netherlands might struggle to

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beat its excess at the last elections, I'd Kurt filters could

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find themselves in Brussels joining others whose hostility to the EU has

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hit home `` at. Another country where the far right is riding high

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is France where it Marie Le Pen 's `` Maria Lipman 's National front

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made gains in the local elections. Middling towns, but nevertheless

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they took up over there. Largely at the expense of Francois Hollande 's

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Socialist party. We speak with an expert in the dynamics of the French

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right. Would it the fair to say that of this phenomenon of going outside

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the mainstream, that within Europe, the National front is the most

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successful case. It is one it is doing particularly well at the

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moment. It is very favourable for them. It has also worked a lot on

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its own image and strategy and I think that accounts for its excess.

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If you look at some of the places where it did well, industrial or

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former industrial towns in the north, Marseilles, one of the

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biggest districts there. What is striking is that they are all

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historically the old readouts of the Communist Party. Is it the same

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people? That's right. For a long time, people thought the National

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Front would do very well by transferring the vote from

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conservatives to the extreme right, but what we witnessed over the past

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2`3 years is a substantial shift from traditional socialist and

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communist voters towards the National Front. We describe in this

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country the National Front, which I have seen in France, the far right.

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When you look at it economic policies, in this country they look

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benign. They look like the sort of things Tony Benn is talking four,

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anti` euro, high government spending. It would not work very

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well with Nigel Farage for instance. It is rare that in the sense the

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National Front distances itself from neoliberal politics for a time now

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and adopts neither right nor left stances in economic and social

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policy, you could say that the policy put forward by the National

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Front are very close to an old left recipe. In the local French

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elections, there were 30,000 or thousands of municipalities up for

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the vote and the National Front only fronted up to about 560 of them.

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This time, they have to fight nationwide. What would be able good

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result for them? If you can see the National Front about 20, that would

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be a good result. Usually it does three well when there is a strong

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leader, so in the presidential election people voted for the man

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rather than the party. But over the past two weeks, the municipal

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election has shown that it can do well without a recognisable leader.

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You have places where the candidate was fairly unknown, and they did

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very well. It shows that people tend to vote for the National Front, for

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the content, for what they put on the table, rather than whether it is

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leading. Will be centre`right party, the party that Mr Sarkozy was

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president of, will that still come first? That is the big debate. The

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last result showed that the UN paid the Conservative party in France, it

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might just come first. The Socialists were below 20%. The

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Nationalists with 22%. One of the consequences of this rise of parties

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outside the mainstream, mainly on the right, but not entirely, is that

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your party is likely to come third in the European elections. We have

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to wait and see in the election. There is still a long way to go in

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the campaign. You are long way behind the polls. We are, if you

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believe the polls at the moment. It is likely there will be a low

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turnout, it is up to us to try to get the voters go to come and

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support us. At this stage in the political cycle, you should be

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romping home in European elections, against the government, it is that

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is what oppositions do. But you have a battle to beat Ukip. We have to

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get out and fight for every single vote. We have a different situation

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in Scotland than we have in other parts of England and Wales, where

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Ukip is threatening both parties. I think in Scotland, what we are

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trying to do is try to make sure we get as many votes for Labour to

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fight against the Nationalists. When I wear this badge in the European

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Parliament, they think it is about the UK, not about the EU. At a time

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when unemployment in the Eurozone is about 12%, youth is over 20%, in

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some countries it is as high as 60%, almost, in Spain and Greece.

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Economies are barely growing, welfare is being cut, poverty has

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been growing, particularly in the Club Med countries, why is it the

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far right that is making the running and not be left? Think the far right

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is very simple answers to many questions, and also they are

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antiestablishment. There is a perfect storm coming together. You

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are the establishment. It is interesting, when it talk about

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forming political groups, these people can't work together. The only

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parties, certainly my party, has a manifest for 31 parties saying that

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it covers 20 countries, and that is a manifesto for change and delivery.

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That isn't what I asked. What I try to ask is, why has the left, why had

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they perceive that 2008 was a crisis of capitalism, and we have seen what

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the outcome has been, why has the establishment not capitalised on

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that? Why has it been the far right? In Britain, the BNP is now

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nowhere... Ukip is nowhere. Where has the left unwell? For the first

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time since I was a in 1999, this could be the largest group in the

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European Parliament. In European Parliament elections, if we get one

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more MEP within get the chance to form the presidency of the European

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Commission. Your rants is that the national party is not a socialist

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party, it is just a nationalist tinge. These nomenclature is not all

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that interesting or useful. Let me go back to our guest, I suppose it

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is not surprising, is it, that when you look at the state of Europe now,

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and the lack of opportunity, growth, jobs, to Chile for young people, it

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is not surprising that nonmainstream parties are doing well ``

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particularly for young people. Mainstream parties seem to have

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tried out different solutions, and voters don't see how that can make a

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difference to their daily life. That is the great strength of extreme

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parties on both sides. In France, going that what you have just

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discussed, I think it is not surprising that the left is not

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doing so well. For many years, maybe ten years, the Conservative party

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and the socialist parties in France, put immigration, national

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identity, at the centre, has been the most important issues, and a

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radicalised these issues. I think that explains as well why it is the

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extreme right and not the extreme left. Who is going to be the extreme

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right candidate in the US presidential election? Certainly not

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Nicholas Sarkozy. I think if there is a candidate, it will be either

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the ex` PM. I think it is likely to be him. Do you know your ETP from

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your SND and good GU EE from your E F a? They do, they are paid to. If

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you don't, fear not. He is going to explain all in his latest A`Z of

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Europe. Look at all those MEPs, more than

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700. To make things more manageable, and the parliament has a of

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pan`European groupings. There is some crazy art on display that

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allows me to explain. Think of the group says political armies, each

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one has to have at least 25 foot soldiers from at least seven member

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states. You want to join the group, but you don't know which is which?

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Let me explain. There are a seven to choose from. On the centre`right,

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the European People's party, the largest, with 86% of seats. Also on

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the right, the European Conservatives and reformists with

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7%. That is where the Tories are. The Socialists and Democrats, where

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you will find Labour has a quarter. The Lib Dems are with the Liberals,

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Ukip's home is the European freedom and democracy group, and then there

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are two small groups for the Greens and Nationalists. They aren't quite

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as rigid as the political parties back at home. Sometimes, the line of

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the group, the majority line, is one, but there are two or three

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countries that are not satisfied, and they are going to vote with

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another group. This is a process of permanent negotiation. Do the

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political groups get any perks? They do, they get funding to pay for

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things like staff, officers and communications. Political perks,

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like the chairman, divvied up on group size. More members means more

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influence. Has anyone set up any new groups of lately? A very young

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looking David Cameron set up the European Conservatives and

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reformists, after withdrawing his MPs from the European People's

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party. The only ones who sit alone in the chamber are known as the non`

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attached. Some are shunned for holding extreme views, and others

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because they are extremely independent. But Hans Peter Martin

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from Austria, he was in an independent group. I was turned into

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a soldier, and they got a lot of letters from voters, e`mails, saying

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hey, you have been a well`known journalist, you have written

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interesting books, I voted for you as an original, I didn't want to

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have another party. The troops are preparing for a big skirmish, the

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European elections. It could see a change in the balance of power.

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He has now taken to talking to inanimate objects! How important are

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these groups? They are very important. They determine the

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positions in the Parliament, the whip, how we vote for different

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things, they are... Was at a mistake for you to come out of the

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centre`right union? Absolutely not. We stopped our association with the

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EEP, they want more integration, control of taxation, customs, home

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affairs, and we didn't agree with that. We wanted to set up an

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alternative with people we did agree with. You are a bit of a Billy no

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mates. We have 57 MPs from 11 member states, and will have more after the

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election. They are dribs and drabs, aren't they? They are not the main

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members. We have some coalitions, there aren't many governments

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anyway. That is a fair point. Is there much difference between the

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mainstream centre`right group and the socialist group? No, exactly.

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That's not true, there are differences. There are clear

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differences in terms of social policy, in terms of how we see

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things, and you can see how in this Parliament, sometimes votes can be

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down to that one vote, it is so close. It looks as though in the new

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Parliament, those votes again will be very close, and it looks as

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though, Martin you are sitting here as the leader of a delegation, it

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looks like you will have a very tough time trying to create a group,

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which I think is a good thing, because I don't want to vote your

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party into politics in what I want a strong socialist group. If the

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electorate decides, we will see. That is all for today, my thanks to

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my guess Martin Callinan and Catherine Stiller.

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Hello there. We saw quite a contrast in weather conditions across the UK.

:25:53.:26:01.

We will continue this picture through the course of the night,

:26:02.:26:06.

where it is staying windy across the North, with showers. Further

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