By Brian Johnson - 26th March 2007
MEP Maciej Giertych has called on parliament’s senior body to reverse an official reprimand imposed on the right-wing Polish deputy for publishing a xenophobic pamphlet.
Giertych has written to the parliament’s bureau, the regulatory body responsible for the assembly’s budget and administrative matters, to revoke the reprimand, placed on him by parliament’s president Hans-Gert Poettering earlier this month.
The 32-page pamphlet titled 'Civilisations at war in Europe' caused an uproar because of its sweeping statements about Jewish people, including claims that Jews are “biologically different” from “gentiles”, and “prefer to voluntarily live separately from the communities which surround them”.
Poettering called the content a “serious breach of fundamental rights,” when he imposed the reprimand on Giertych during the March Strasbourg plenary session.
“The European parliament, which thrives on lively political debate and unfailingly condemns all forms of xenophobia, should under no circumstances be associated with the views published in [Giertych’s] brochure,” said Poettering.
However, in a letter to bureau members – which includes Poettering - Giertych says he has not violated any of parliament’s principles in its rule 9 rules of procedure.
“The president does not point to any specific act that I might have committed…instead, he argues that I have violated this rule because my publication contains ‘several allegations of a xenophobic nature,’” argues Giertych.
“He [Poettering] does not cite any example from my publication that would substantiate this.”
The extreme right-wing MEP also questions Poettering’s claim that the content of his pamphlet was a serious breach of fundamental rights and human dignity.
“Again there is no mention of which fundamental rights I am said to have broken, nor whose dignity I have abused.”
Giertych’s office said they expected the Bureau to make a decision on whether to revoke the decision at their meeting in Brussels on wednesday.
Bureau member Diana Wallis called Giertych’s move “entirely inappropriate”.
I took the trouble to read all 32 pages of his pamphlet and it is full of sweeping generalisations about Russians, Germans, Jews and even modern music,” said Wallis.
“He can dress this up as an attack on freedom of speech but he does not represent European values. He is free to say what he wants, but he should not be writing this under the European parliament banner”.
Wallis said she did not envisage any other outcome and expected bureau members to strongly reaffirm the original decision.
A parliament source close to Poettering agreed with Wallis’ comments that bureau members were unlikely to overturn the original ruling adding that Poettering would likely comment on the issue after the meeting.
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