Posted on 04/26/2004 9:57:09 AM PDT by MegaSilver
PROTESTERS threw eggs at far-Right French leader Jean-Marie Le Pen yesterday as he travelled to northwest England to show his support for the British National Party.
People hurled rubbish bins at his car as he left a Manchester hotel, where he endorsed the extreme-Right BNP, which shares the anti-immigration stance of his own National Front (FN) party.
Police and security officers protected the firebrand FN founder inside his vehicle as he tried to slip by the protesters, Britain's Press Association news agency reported.
Mr Le Pen later attended a BNP dinner in his honour in Wales, after the venue was switched at the last minute from Britain's second-largest city, Birmingham. Several hundred demonstrators had gathered in the city centre, shouting "BNP out, Nazis out". Birmingham has a large immigrant community.
Under heavy police guard, the dinner was finally held in a marquee near the village of Welshpool in central Wales.
The BNP is gearing up for June elections for the European Parliament and local councils.
Mr Le Pen, who came a distant but unexpected second in the last French presidential election in 2002, was visiting Britain on the invitation of BNP president Nick Griffin to support the party ahead of the elections.
"I came to Manchester today to be on the side and support the various candidates," Mr Le Pen said at the Manchester hotel.
"I hope many people from the BNP will be elected, and that together we will create a very strong nationalist movement within the European Parliament."
Outside, several hundred protesters chanted "Black and white, unite and fight" -- a reference to the two parties' common virulent anti-immigrant stand.
Earlier, British Home Secretary David Blunkett said he would have preferred that Mr Le Pen had not come to Britain, and that the BNP did not exist.
"It's extraordinary that a fascist right-wing party should be inviting a foreigner to come and give them their support," Mr Blunkett told BBC Television.
"If he behaves himself, then he's free to come and go as any other citizen in Europe. If he incites or causes public disorder, then the police will act immediately, and I will give them any support they need."
Since its electoral breakthrough in 2002, the FN has sought to style itself as a potential party of government rather than a right-wing protest movement.
The Unite Against Fascism coalition had called a protest march in Birmingham against the fund-raising dinner, which the BNP was billing as a "patriotic black-tie dinner event" hosted by Mr Griffin.
The BNP, which claims 6000 members, is on the fringes of British politics, but the party made some headway in local elections last year, more than tripling its number of local council members to 18.
Its manifesto calls for "an immediate halt to all further immigration", Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, restrictions on foreign imports and the restoration of capital punishment.
And assisting David Duke in his congressional campaign...
Which one?
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