Cameron must be challenged on his new European “friends”

By Mike Katz

Tory leader David Cameron’s decision to split from the mainstream centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament and ally his party’s MEPs with the dregs of Eastern European fascism in a new anti-federalist Brussels grouping is looking more questionable than ever.

The man Cameron nominated to be the new group’s leader in the European Parliament, Michal Kaminski of Poland’s Law and Order Party, has a history of denying war crimes against Jews – the sort of positions from which the Tory leader would run a million miles if they were aired in the UK.

Thanks to investigations in last week’s Observer, it has been confirmed that in 2001 Kaminski thought the then Polish President was wrong to officially apologise for the Jedwabne massacre of July 1941. (Research from Polish-American academic Jan T Gross concluded that Poles, with the help of some occupying Nazi troops, locked hundreds of Jews into a barn, and set it on fire).

Despite his refutations, the Observer’s research clearly shows that Kaminski (a member of the far-right anti-Semitic National Revival of Poland in the late 1980s) did indeed react by saying “I think that Mr President can apologise but for other things. He should withhold apologies for Jedwabne.”

The editor-in-chief of Nasza Polska, Piotr Jakucki, confirmed that Kaminski gave the 2001 interview. Maria Kaczynska, then a journalist with Gazeta Wspolczesna, recalls Kaminski’s role:

“I remember all of this very vividly. I had to be in Jedwabne to write about him. I saw him in Jedwabne. He had a big folder and he pulled out a file, a petition calling on locals not to participate in apologies to the Jews.”

In an accompanying piece in the same paper, columnist Nick Cohen rightly questions Cameron’s judgment in running towards anyone who might be anti-federalist in Europe without due diligence.

Cameron had plenty of opportunities to change his mind about one of the first pledges he made; that he would create a new European Parliamentary grouping. He could even have said that, having looked for possible partners, he wasn’t keen on the company he’d have to keep.

But no. Cameron’s dog-whistle politics for his backbenchers means his MEPs – with the honourable exception of Edward McMillan-Scott, who knows a fascist when he sees one, are breaking bread with some seriously nasty politicians.

Sadly, his Tory MEP colleague Dan Hannan is more representative of Cameron’s new European thinking, describing Kaminski on his blog for the Daily Telegraph as “a Thatcherite: a sturdy Polish patriot who is nonetheless, in outlook, almost a British Tory”.

Labour must make sure people don’t forget who Cameron chooses to be his friends and keep asking him why he thinks Kaminski is an acceptable leader of his party’s grouping in Europe. And we should also nail the Tory line that there are some dodgy views expressed in the ranks of the European Socialists’ group, so it’s honours even. Whilst this may or may not be the case, Cameron’s partners in Europe have policy platforms and leaderships with attitudes and policies which are racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and hostile to travellers.

We cannot let this become a case of “out of sight, out of mind”. Cameron has legitimised and made friends with European fascists – we need to ensure he pays the political price for his Eurosceptic dogma.

Mike Katz is a vice-chair of the Jewish Labour Movement.

Photograph: The Guardian/Gerard Cerles/AFP/Getty Images

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