Brussels – In 2016, the European Parliament is going to give a €600,000 financing to the Pan-European party composed of fascists, neo-Nazis and negationists led by Roberto Fiore and to the foundation connected with the party, as stated in the official documents listing the contributions allocated every year by the European Parliament to political parties and foundations operating at European level. According to the documents, dating back to January 2016, €197,625 are to be allocated to the German Foundation “Europa Terra Nostra”, connected to the European party Alliance for Peace and Freedom (Afp). The same party was allocated another financing, this time dedicated to European parties, amounting to €400,000. The party will then receive about €600,000, and decision was taken by the Bureau, that is the highest administrative decisional body of the European Parliament, composed of President Martin Schulz, 14 Vice-Presidents (including the Italians Antonio Tajani and David Sassoli) and 5 commissioners.
If the name “Alliance for Peace and Freedom” might lead to some ambiguity, those in its top positions are far from being questioned for their ideas. The President of the party is Roberto Fiore, notorious in Italy as founder of Forza Italia, sentenced in 1985 by the Italian Magistrature to 9 years of jail for armed criminal conspiracy together with the NAR (Armed Revolutionary Units, an Italian neofascist militant organisation). The Secretary General of the party is the Swedish Stefan Jacobsson, former leader of the now defunct Neo-Nazi Swedish Party, a longstanding militant of movements for the white race supremacy. Another member of the AfP is the Belgian Hervé Van Laethem, sentenced several times by the Belgian justice for racism, and fierce supporter of the freedom of supporting negationism; he’s flanked by members of the Greek Golden Dawn (whose representatives seat in the EP as well), and by members of the NationalDemocratic Party of Germany, another Neo-Nazi movement, which is currently under accusation at the German Constitutional Court for being illegal, a request filed by five of the Governors of the German Federal Republic.
These subjects will be allocated about €600,000 by the European Parliament. An astonishing decision, given that the regulations governing political parties and rules regarding their funding at European level establish that a party, in order to receive fundings, should observe “the founding principles of the European Union, namely the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.” This is the same spirit behind the new rules rules on funding EU political parties and foundations approved by Brussels institutions in 2014. The new rules, which will enter in force from January 2017, establish that “respecting EU values,” as spelled out in EU Treaty Article 2, would be a “prerequisite” for any alliance of national parties wishing to apply for EU funds. And European values are far from those supported by Roberto Fiore and his company. “The European Parliament verifies that the party of the foundation receiving a fund respects European values,” confirmed the press office of the EP, which then continued saying that the AfP website “does not contain anything against Europe, freedom or democracy.” And – apparently – that was enough: “We cannot evaluate every statement made by single members of a party,” the concluded abruptly.
Still, MEPs could block this decision: a quarter of them, representing at least three parliamentary groups, could ask for the allocation to undergo an “applicability check,” that is, a verification concerning the adherence of a party or a foundation to the main principles of the European Union in terms of democracy, respect of human values and fundamental freedoms.
