The decision has sparked sharp criticism from conservative and sovereignist MEPs, who say there is a double standard in assessing similar cases.
The dispute has opened a wider debate on the approach of European political elites to issues of racism, violence and victims of crime.
On Wednesday evening, the Conference of Presidents (the leaders of eight parliamentary groups, as well as EP President Roberta Metsola) blocked a proposal by the conservative ECR group to hold a plenary debate and then adopt a parliamentary resolution on the tragic and outrageous death of Henry Nowak.
Nowak was an 18-year-old British student who bled to death on the streets of Southampton when he was arrested and handcuffed for an alleged racist hate crime after being stabbed by a Sikh man.
When a proposal for a commemorative debate on the event that shocked the entire West emerged in Parliament, the European Parliament was faced with a decision that was strikingly similar to that of 2020, when the death of George Floyd in the United States sparked Black Lives Matter protests in Western Europe. This time, however, many of the same people made a very different decision.
While the mainstream elite (including Commission President von der Leyen) was then willing to discuss the alleged murder of a repeat offender in Minneapolis and rushed to condemn “all forms of racism” through a resolution, in the case of a young European who died only because the British police considered that he had to be the perpetrator because he was white, it actively rejected this.
Of the eight parliamentary groups, only the sovereignists Patriots and ESN supported the ECR motion, while the leaders of the EPP, S&D, RENEW, the Greens and the Left, as well as President Metsola herself, all rejected it.
“The EPP has once again joined forces with the far left to protect politically correct policing by blocking the ECR motion,” wrote Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers in response. The Patriots (PFE) group also left a message for members of Ursula’s coalition: “Europeans’ lives matter too.”
A similar scenario recently unfolded in the Polish parliament, where right-wing MPs paid tribute to Nowak with silent applause. Members of the governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist Civic Platform, which is a member of the EPP, did not even bother to stand.
Posted by Neptun_11
2 Comments
Why would the EU have a debate about a British born man killing another British born man?
Sensible from the European Parliament,common sense wins,these far right cunts just want it to go on as long as possible.