MORE LIKE EUROPE (CONT.)... :

Summit of far-Right parties at Haider lair (Michael Leidig in Vienna and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels, 31/07/2002, The Electronic Telegraph)

Europe's leading far-Right parties have held secret talks at the mountain lair of the Austrian populist politician Jšrg Haider to forge a pan-European movement.

The gathering at Mr Haider's power-base in Carinthia, described as a "private event", included the two leaders of Belgium's Vlaams Blok, Filip de Winter and Frank Vanhecke, and Mario Borghesia, a former Euro-MP for Italy's Northern League.

The talks centred on proposals for a far-Right list for the European Parliament elections in July 2004, copying tactics already adopted by Left-wing parties.

The first meeting went so well that the group plans fresh strategy sessions, with a Belgian summit in December to work on a joint manifesto.

Shortly before the gathering, Mr Haider visited President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, leading to claims that Baghdad has been financing the creation of a"Haider list" as a way of destabilising Europe.

Does anyone else feel like it's the 1930s all over again in Europe? Posted by Orrin Judd at July 31, 2002 1:08 PM