From the BBC:
Gotta love it
PAEAN TO A DICTATOR
It's not often you hear a paean of praise to the Spanish fascist dictator General Franco these days. And you certainly don't expect to hear it in the European Parliament. So members were shocked when Polish MEP Maciej Giertych got to his feet. He was speaking in one of those debates that seem rather pious and pointless, to mark the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish civil war - full of MEPs condemning a regime that is long dead and buried, already reviled by most.
Now Mr Giertych is not some marginal figure. He was a presidential candidate and his party is a coalition partner in the Polish government. His son doubles as deputy prime minister and education minister.
Franco guaranteed the maintenance of traditional values in Europe and we lack such statesmen today
Maciej Giertych MEP
This is what Giertych senior said: "Thanks to the Spanish army and Franco the communist attack on Catholic Spain was thwarted. The presence of such people in European politics as Franco guaranteed the maintenance of traditional values in Europe and we lack such statesmen today. Christian Europe is losing against atheistic socialists today and this has to change."
He says today's assumptions are "historical revision". How do you think the history of Europe would have been different if the elected socialist government and their communist allies had won in Spain?
SLOVAK NATIONALISM
The European Parliament is worried about the rise of what they regard as the far right. The Socialist group has suspended the Slovak Social Democrats and probably will kick them out in the autumn because they've gone into coalition with the Slovak National Party, the SNS. Their leader is quoted as saying things like: "Let's all get in tanks and go and flatten Budapest," and, "There's no such thing as Roma, only gypsies who steal, rob and plunder."
And the Polish MEP thought they didn't make statesmen like that any more.
It's not often you hear a paean of praise to the Spanish fascist dictator General Franco these days. And you certainly don't expect to hear it in the European Parliament. So members were shocked when Polish MEP Maciej Giertych got to his feet. He was speaking in one of those debates that seem rather pious and pointless, to mark the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish civil war - full of MEPs condemning a regime that is long dead and buried, already reviled by most.
Now Mr Giertych is not some marginal figure. He was a presidential candidate and his party is a coalition partner in the Polish government. His son doubles as deputy prime minister and education minister.
Franco guaranteed the maintenance of traditional values in Europe and we lack such statesmen today
Maciej Giertych MEP
This is what Giertych senior said: "Thanks to the Spanish army and Franco the communist attack on Catholic Spain was thwarted. The presence of such people in European politics as Franco guaranteed the maintenance of traditional values in Europe and we lack such statesmen today. Christian Europe is losing against atheistic socialists today and this has to change."
He says today's assumptions are "historical revision". How do you think the history of Europe would have been different if the elected socialist government and their communist allies had won in Spain?
SLOVAK NATIONALISM
The European Parliament is worried about the rise of what they regard as the far right. The Socialist group has suspended the Slovak Social Democrats and probably will kick them out in the autumn because they've gone into coalition with the Slovak National Party, the SNS. Their leader is quoted as saying things like: "Let's all get in tanks and go and flatten Budapest," and, "There's no such thing as Roma, only gypsies who steal, rob and plunder."
And the Polish MEP thought they didn't make statesmen like that any more.
Gotta love it
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