Farage's EFD group continues to be rocked by scandal. His Lega Nord allies are now in serious trouble after a financial scandal threatens to tear the Italian party apart. OLAF - the EU's anti-fraud office - is also now involved. See: LINK
Farage will personally lose control of a substantial amount of money and power - including the 400 Budget - if the EFD group collapses.
Umberto Bossi, the long time leader of UKIP's allies in the European Pariament, Lega Nord, has resigned in the midst of a financial scandal. Bossi, who already has one conviction under his belt for fraud (as well as one for incitement to racial hatred) epitomises the type of scum that gravitates towards Nigel Farage and his EFD group.
Bossi's party contains the worst kind of racists, homophobes, and right-wing lunatics that continental Europe has to offer. One of the Lega Nord MEPs in Farage's EFD group, Matteo Salvini, recently called for racial segregation on public transport. Another, Mario Borghezio, has multiple convictions for racially motivated violence and child abuse. Borghezio was filmed exhorting facists to "infiltrate mainstream political parties".
Nigel - our grandfathers fought and won a war against the scum that you sit with in Brussels. This is how you repay them - and you do it, by your own admission, for money. They hung Lord Haw-Haw, and rightly so; such a shame we don't still hang traitors..... You can judge a man by the company he keeps, Nigel.
From the BBC:
Leading Italian populist politician Umberto Bossi has resigned as head of the Northern League after a financial scandal engulfed the party.
The Northern League is the only party in opposition to the current technocratic government led by Prime Minister Mario Monti.
A former party treasurer is suspected of misusing funds.
Mr Bossi, known as a fierce critic of corruption in public life, denies any wrongdoing himself.
Northern League treasurer Francesco Belsito resigned on Tuesday after prosecutors alleged he had used party funds to pay for, among other things, the remodelling of Mr Bossi's villa and holidays for the leader's children.
There was no immediate comment from the former treasurer on the accusations laid against him.
News of Mr Bossi's resignation emerged on Thursday, with no comment from the leader himself.
The scandal has been all the more embarrassing for him because he has always been bitterly contemptuous of the corruption that plagues so much of Italian public life, the BBC's Alan Johnston reports from Rome.
Mr Bossi has been one of the most colourful figures on the Italian political stage, coming to prominence on a separatist platform, our correspondent says.
In fiery speeches he frequently criticised "the corrupt and lazy South" for draining hard-earned wealth away from the North.
Mr Bossi once described the European Union as a nest of communist bankers and freemasons.
Despite the rhetoric, the Northern League formed coalition governments with the right-wing parties supporting the governments of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Following his resignation the party instantly gave him the honorary position of president.
But Alan Johnston says the amount of influence Mr Bossi may wield in future will perhaps depend on how the current fraud inquiry plays out.
To read the original: LINK
Also see: LINK
No comments:
Post a Comment