EXCLUSIVE - Libertas in Brussels is distancing itself from remarks made by the Polish branch of the party, given to thenews.pl, that, “mixing cultures in one place never leads to peace.”
by Peter Gentle and Jakub Groszkowski
As part of our survey of the policies of all parties taking part in the European parliamentary election (see Your vote, our Europe) by Polish Radio‘s thenews.pl - which in Poland takes place on June 7 - Poland’s branch of the anti-Lisbon Treaty Libertas party told us that Turkey should not be allowed into the European Union because: “History teaches us that mixing many cultures in one place never leads to peace and cooperation...”
Head of Libertas in Poland, Daniel Pawlowiec - a former minister and a member of the League of Polish Families (LPR) - told us, via his survey answers, that: “Turkey is not a European state. They live in another culture and civilization. If we join our borders with them, Turkey will be very strong in the European Parliament, and that could be a danger to a united Europe.”
We asked Libertas headquarters in Brussels if they opposed Turkey’s application to the European Union on cultural grounds. Anita Kelly, communications director said: “That‘s not our policy. We oppose Turkey joining the EU because that would mean giving more power to the larger nations. ”
Turkey has a population of 71 million, making it the second largest demographically in the EU if it became a member.
When asked why the Polish branch of Libertas was giving policy declarations that were not in keeping with the general message from the Libertas party - which has concentrated on an opposition to the Lisbon Treaty, reducing the ’democratic deficit’ and cutting red tape in Brussels - Libertas spokeswoman Anita Kelly said: “Perhaps they are directing their comments at local concerns. ”
Libertas, in the many different European countries in which they are standing, have indeed appeared to direct policy at “local concerns”. Last week, Caroline Simons, from the Irish branch of Libertas, suggested that, in the face of mass immigration by Poles and other central and eastern European states to Ireland, a new “Blue Card” (visa) system should be introduced to, “reduce the burden to Ireland of caring for inhabitants of other member states”.
Libertas in Poland has been campaigning on a ticket - supported by Libertas in Brussels - which includes opening up Austrian and German restrictions to Poles and others from working in their countries. But the ‘Blue card’ system would seem to contravene statements by founder of Libertas, Declan Ganley, that free movement of labour within the EU was essential to its success.
Anita Kelly told us that the Blue Card system had been misunderstood. “It‘s simply an attempt to cut red tape,” she said.
Climate change
When we asked Jan Schwippel of the Czech branch of Libertas what his views on global warming were, he told us that “There is no global warming.”
When we asked the Polish branch of Libertas what its stance was on climate change, they told us: “We think that global warming is not as serious a problem as the economical crisis, bureaucracy, wasting money or the anti-democratic Lisbon Treaty. The European Union needs change and that’s our priority.”
Declan Ganley, on the other hand, has mentioned an “entrepreneurial approach” to global warming.
After we suggested to Krzysztof Bobinski of the Unia i Polska pro-EU think tank in Warsaw that perhaps Libertas was more a modern type of franchise than a traditional political party, he said: “But how it‘s different to, say, MacDonald‘s is that you can cross borders to see if the burgers taste the same. With Libertas - and with the other political parties involved in the election across Europe - political messages do not cross borders. There is no information flow between one country and another. So it really doesn‘t matter if different parts of Libertas are sending out a hotchpotch of messages.”
But the cross border flow of information did reach the UK recently. On May 25, the local Manchester Evening News reported that Libertas had been forced to find a new candidate for the North West constituency in England following Benjamin Tallis standing down “on a point of principle” over the direction party activists were taking in Poland and the Czech Republic.