European far-right leaders, meeting to condemn the EU, greeted with boos

The New York Times

PRAGUE — As European far-right leaders gathered in Prague on Saturday for a two-day conference to unify their stance on immigration and other issues, they were met by throngs of protesters who booed, shouted “Shame” and denounced populism and xenophobia.

The members of the European Parliament, including Marine Le Pen of France and Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, met as part of the nationalist Europe of Nations and Freedom coalition at a heavily fortified hotel just outside the city center in the Czech Republic.

At a news conference, Mr. Wilders, leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom, called on the European Union to adopt more restrictive immigration policies and said the conference would serve to usher in a new era of cooperation amonglike-minded parties.

“In 30 or 50 years, the Czech Republic will be surrounded by countries with population where 20 percent of people will be Muslims,” Mr. Wilders said. “That is as if the Czech Republic became a Gaza Strip. We need to prevent mass migration even if we should build a wall.”

The conference was hosted by the anti-Islam and anti-immigrant Freedom and Direct Democracy party, known as the SPD. The party emerged as a major force in Czech parliamentary elections in October, winning nearly 11 percent of the vote.

Tomio Okamura, the Czech-Japanese leader of the SPD, said the gathering Saturday was to demand a reformed European Union based on the tightest possible cooperation of sovereign nations, guided by mutual benefits without any dictate from Brussels, while maintaining free movement of people, goods, capital and services.

“Europe should not be a denationalized state directed by bureaucrats in Brussels,” Mr. Okamura said.

Mr. Okamura, Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Wilders accused the bloc of destroying the sovereignty of member states by adopting a mandatory quota for asylum-seekers from the Middle East.

“Because we like Europe, we say that the EU is going to kill her,” said Ms. Le Pen, president of the National Front.

Several leftist groups organized protests Friday and Saturday. About 400 people gathered Saturday outside the news conference, chanting, whistling and booing far-right supporters as they entered the compound.

“In the Czech Republic, there is an increasing number of attacks against minorities due to the policies of the Czech SPD party,” said Jan Cemper, the protests’ organizer. “At the same time, we want to show that such congresses of xenophobes and populists are notwelcomed here.”