Which incidents? These ones ...
We first reported that there was a major investigation into racism within UKIP’s European Parliament group, The EFDD, at the end of last year. Today we will be laying out the true nature of the complaint that was made to EU authorities thanks to sources within the European Parliament.
For background, please read our previous article: Ukip’s flirtation with racism becomes a long term relationship.
"Appropriate Methods"
Our sources tell us that Przemek Kilian, an assistant for who works for EFDD’s Polish MEP, Robert Iwaszkiewicz, initiated a conversation with members of UKIP staff regarding immigrants coming into Southern and Eastern Europe, describing it in a very critical manner. Kilian allegedly “lectured” the staff on the “appropriate methods” for dealing with Muslims living in Poland and Eastern Europe, suggesting to his colleagues that:
“...the best way to frighten immigrants away from Poland was to do what his football supporters do, and that is to take a pig into a football stadium and write “Allah” all over it and then proceed to slaughter the pig amongst loud cheers of joy."He also went onto say that he would only welcome Ukrainians and other related races into his nation rather than Asians.
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| The Polish far-right often uses pigs as a tool to highlight their perceived grievances, seen here in a protest against mainstream parties. Photo © Getty images. |
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| Robert Iwaszkiewicz MEP, a confirmed holocaust denier “on loan” from Korwin-Mikke, saved UKIP’s lucrative EU funding in 2014. |
Dariuz Sobkow, from Poland, is the EFDD official responsible for “group enlargement”; Prior to joining the group, Sobkow served as Poland’s ambassador to the EU.
He was reported for allegedly making statements in front of other EU Parliament staff emphasising the importance of having white immigration into the UK rather than “black immigrants from Africa”.
He claimed that former Prime Minister Tony Blair had said he;
“.. did not like black people and preferred white Poles ..”
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| EFDD’s Darius Sobkow |
During September 2015’s plenary session in Strasbourg, an ethnic minority member of UKIP staff was allegedly “harassed” by far right MEP Janus Korwin-Mikke.
The complaint refers to a elements of a speech made during the session, where the Polish MEP reportedly “gestured several times” towards the staffer while denouncing Muslim immigration into Europe.
The issue was raised this to the attention of UKIP MEP Bill Etheridge - who we are told “did nothing about it”, despite another UKIP staffer verifying the incident took place.
A video of the speech is available, for now, on this link.
Pressure From UKIP Staff
The investigation currently underway also alleges that staff were “pressured” from reporting incidents such as bullying and racism by colleagues, as senior UKIP figures felt any complaint could collapse the fragile EFDD group, cutting off UKIP’s much needed funding and speaking time.
In particular, Alistair Earl Harrison, who works for UKIP’s Media team in Brussels, has been quoted in the report as the member of EFDD staff who cautioned that the group was in “danger of breaking up” if knowledge of these incidents were ever reported.
Well, they're public knowledge now.
Harrison’s alleged pressuring of other staff to drop complaints is confirmed by a signed witness statement in the report.
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| Alistair Earl Harrison (centre) with EFDD’s Liam Porter (L) and Carl Joel Ankar, whom we have previously written about here. |
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