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Monday 13 February RNW - NEWS AND ANALYSIS FROM THE NETHERLANDS IN 10 LANGUAGES, WORLDWIDE 24/7 ON RADIO, TV AND ONLINE
Herman Van Rompuy
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Van Rompuy barrage - should Farage pay?

Published on : 3 March 2010 - 11:10am | By RNW News Desk (YouTube)
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British Euro MP Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party has been fined for his personal attack on European Union President Herman Van Rompuy. The outburst cost him 2980 euros, the equivalent of ten days’ attendance pay.

During a debate last week Mr Farage called Mr Van Rompuy, the former prime minister of Belgium, “a low grade bank clerk” and said he had the "charisma of a damp rag." When asked to apologise he refused, adding that he was sorry if he had offended bank clerks. In his attack he went on to ask, “Who are you? I had never heard of you. Nobody in Europe had ever heard of you.”

These kind of personal attacks are new to European politics. Is this kind of outburst acceptable? Let us know what you think.
 

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Discussion

ahmes sultan 8 April 2010 - 12:09am / saudi arabia

Excellent points , Jochen
Freedom of speech is dying a thousand deaths here in the US ,in Canada its already dead , UK - nearly gone.Obama is trying to eliminate forms of media that do not support him & his agenda & laws to prevent pastors from teaching a Biblical view are underway. Some may take great delight in stifling religious speech & those who hold them,but they shouldn't dance in the streets yet- they will be next on the list.
Freedoms are never free, they have a cost. Are you willing to pay the price ? I hope so.We join others here to do what is necessary to preserve & restore them.
"Is ...peace so sweet ,as to be purchased at the price of chains & slavery ..give me Liberty ,or give me death "P.Henry

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David Berridge 4 March 2010 - 4:43pm / Canada

No one does seem to know the EU President very well, as Tony Blair was deemed the canidate to win the posting for quite a while. Mr. Farage's remarks were out of order in terms of Parliamentary language which must be employed so as to maintain the dignity and decorum of parliament, so there is really no infringement of free speech here in the conventional sense. In all fairness to Mr.Farge however, he did offer apologies to bank clerks everywhere, in order to avoid any misunderstandings which may have arisen from his remarks! What Mr. Farage should have done was to request an official political biography of the President, and afterwards crtitiqued what he finds as deficiencies and shortcomings of the President's qualifications and abilities to perform the duties required of the office. Mr. Farage's comments were made by a fringe member of a fringe party whom I had never heard of before either.

Joe 4 March 2010 - 3:51pm / USA

I agree with Jochen. Scratch beneath the surface, and Europeans have as a reflex, the idea that opinion can be legally punishable. The effect is that of regulating speech, which as we know from history has been intended to banish ideas. In effect, an attempt to 'regulate thought'.

It is the essense of tyranny. The rest of an autocracy's features are rather secondary because if a population is self-limiting based on what you have trained most of them into acting on, you don't need to force much on too many of them. One wonders if this is even a thought to the short-sighted 'activist' types who autonomically demand that the law or public humiliation come down on the heads of those they disagree with.

i.e.: while the adolescent 'anti-fascist' campainers try to frame those they oppose as being inherently wrong because they are conservative, what they don't understand is that fascism was, and has always been as much of a characteristic of the radical left as the radical left are. The notion that characterizes the radical right is, in fact, Arachism - a view that the 'anti-fascism' kids take a kind of joy in.

The scale is not the carnival of collectivism at one end (neo-communists, anti-fascists, Trots) and neo-fascists on the right, it's the whole stinking collection of those in love with government driven social measures (which has the effect of being totalitarian) on one end, and promoters of Anarchy and chaos in minute numbers on the other end.

In the middle is the debate over the limitations and scope of government, which is what all mainstream politics is about, and the thing that the parasites on the ends try to play on.

jochen_van_duitsland 3 March 2010 - 6:04pm / Germany

Mr. Farage is fined for criticising Mr. Van Rompuy, Mr. Wilders is on trial for criticising Islam, a preacher at speaker's corner, hyde park, has been fined for nothing more but simply quoting Bible verses that call homosexuality a sin...

Where has democracy gone in Europe? It is silently dying (if not already dead), together with freedom of speech.

I wish we had politicians like Mr. Farage in Germany, today. Well, it's not nice to call someone a "damp bag", but Mr. Farage's words sound like trifles compared to what e.g. Franz-Josef Strauß and Herbert Wehner called each other (two of the most polemical speakers at the German Bundestag in the 1950s - 70s/80s). Were they still alive today, I bet they would have been sued or jailed.

anneke 4 March 2010 - 7:55am

Excellent points , Jochen
Freedom of speech is dying a thousand deaths here in the US ,in Canada its already dead , UK - nearly gone.Obama is trying to eliminate forms of media that do not support him & his agenda & laws to prevent pastors from teaching a Biblical view are underway. Some may take great delight in stifling religious speech & those who hold them,but they shouldn't dance in the streets yet- they will be next on the list.
Freedoms are never free, they have a cost. Are you willing to pay the price ? I hope so.We join others here to do what is necessary to preserve & restore them.
"Is ...peace so sweet ,as to be purchased at the price of chains & slavery ..give me Liberty ,or give me death "P.Henry

alanposting 3 March 2010 - 1:18pm

Thank god someone has the guts to tell the truth....WHO IN THE HELL IS HE.

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