The British National Party on Monday won its first seats in the European Parliament, in a major breakthrough for a party reviled by mainstream politicians for its anti-immigration stance.
Party chairman Nick Griffin was elected an MEP in the northwest of England region with eight percent of the vote, hours after Andrew Brons won the BNP’s first ever European seat in the nearby Yorkshire and the Humber region.
Griffin had earlier hailed Brons’ win – with almost 10 percent of the vote – as “a huge breakthrough” for his party, and used the victory to reiterate his party’s anti-immigration and anti-Islam stance.
Griffin told Sky News television: “This is a Christian country and Islam is not welcome, because Islam and Christianity, Islam and democracy, Islam and women’s rights do not mix. That’s a simple fact that the elites of Europe are going to have to get their heads round and deal with over the next few years.”
See also ENGAGE, 8 June 2009
Update: See Inayat Bunglawala’s piece at Comment is Free, 11 June 2009