British National Party

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British National Party British National Party
Logo of the BNP
Party leader Adam Walker
founding 1982
Headquarters Welshpool
Youth organization Resistance
newspaper Voice of Freedom
Alignment Right-wing extremism ,
ethnic nationalism ,
EU skepticism,
fascism
Colours) Red , white , blue
Parliament seats
0/650
Number of members 500 (2014)
European party European Alliance of National Movements (EANB)
Website bnp.org.uk

The British National Party ( BNP , German  British National Party ) is a right-wing extremist party in the United Kingdom . Some observers also classify them as - at least partially - neo-fascist . Since February 15, 2010, due to a court ruling, party membership is no longer officially reserved for whites.

The party was founded in 1982. The party's greatest success was its entry into the European Parliament in 2009 . Since then, however, the party has lost much of its importance.

history

Foundation and first time

The BNP split from the National Front in the 1980s . The main focus of their party program was the demand for the return of all non-white immigrants to their home countries. The founder and longtime chairman of the party was John Tyndall (1927-2005), who in 1976 also chaired the National Front. He has been sentenced several times for incitement to racial hatred and illicit gun possession. He advocated the thesis of a “ Jewish world conspiracy ”, established contacts with numerous right-wing extremist groups and parties outside the United Kingdom and tried to create a basis for cooperation.

On September 17, 1993, in a by-election for Millwall constituency, a BNP politician was elected for the first time to a local council in Tower Hamlets . This led to massive resistance from militant anti-fascist groups. The "Anti-Fascist Action" (AFA), dominated by former Trotskyists , also used violence against the BNP supporters. There were regular street battles at various events on both sides.

There is also evidence of contacts between party members of the BNP and the Combat 18 group , from which the party distanced itself.

Ascent from 2000

Nick Griffin

In 1999, Nick Griffin became party chairman by replacing previous party chairman John Tyndall by a ballot. From now on he tried to give the party a new, more moderate image by avoiding any reference to historical National Socialism and banning all Nazi symbolism from public appearances (as was still common at the time of his predecessor). This policy was modeled on the French National Front and the Austrian FPÖ , among others . Since then, attempts have been made to avoid open racism and anti-Semitism .

In December 2001, the BNP won three seats in local elections in Burnley . In November 2002, statements and sayings by Mark Collett, chairman of the youth organization "Young BNP", caused a sensation. At a television event, he made radical statements that cost him his post within the party as a result. He was then replaced by the 20-year-old Tony Wentworth, a student at Salford University .

In 2003, the BNP reached elections to council seats in the Black Country , Hertfordshire and Essex in the south-east of England . In the European elections, the BNP focused primarily on anti-EU advertising campaigns and competed against the right-wing populist UK Independence Party (UKIP), which is also aiming for the United Kingdom to leave the EU. The BNP received 4.9% of the vote but did not receive a seat.

In the local elections in England in 2006, the BNP was able to significantly increase its seats to 33. In the London borough of Barking and Dagenham it even became the second largest party, where it was able to increase from two councilors to twelve. It should be noted that in England, similar to the general election, a seat can only be won by direct election in the respective constituency. In the local elections, however, she lost all seats in this district again.

In November 2008, the personal data of 12,801 members and sympathizers of the party were published on WikiLeaks on the Internet.

In the European elections in June 2009 , the BNP, contrary to expectations, made it into the European Parliament for the first time , where it was represented by two members . Because of her election success, party leader Griffin was invited to the prestigious political program Question Time for the first time on October 22, 2009 . This decision by the BBC was very controversial.

Decline and splits from 2010

After the election successes of 2006 to 2009, the popularity of the BNP declined due to racist and xenophobic statements that contradicted the self-portrayal as a moderate right-wing party and failed to appeal to the middle-class electorate. After a court forced the BNP to accept non-white members, when asked why the BNP had not given up racial discrimination in the party much sooner, Griffin replied: “If you were dealing with a group of female rape victims, they would hardly be asked why they don't accept men or whether they hate men. The same goes for our party. It is a haven for people traumatized by the multiracial experiment. ”In 2010 it was reported that BNP candidates for political posts are being trained to circumvent questions about Holocaust comments in public interviews.

As a result, disputes arose within the party about the leadership and direction of the party. Andrew Brons , one of the two MEPs, left the party in late 2012 and founded the more radical British Democratic Party in early 2013 . In the 2014 European elections , the BNP only received 1.1% of the vote and no seats in the Strasbourg Parliament, which practically sank it into insignificance, while the UKIP became the party with the most votes on immigration, internal security and rejection of the EU. In the local elections taking place at the same time, the party lost all but two local seats. Nick Griffin lost his re-election as party leader in June 2014 and was expelled from the party in October. Adam Walker became the new party leader .

The party lost a lot of members. In 2013 there were 4,220 members, in 2015 there were only 500. In the British general election in 2015 , the BNP only ran in eight constituencies. In early 2016, the UK Electoral Commission removed the BNP from its register after failing to register, including a payment of £ 25, annually. Shortly thereafter, the party submitted the necessary documents and was re-entered into the register.

Positions

The party sees itself as an advocate for the interests of the native British population, which are no longer taken into account by the other parties. Mainly criticism of multiculturalism , the allegedly threatened " Islamization " of Great Britain and the alleged restriction of freedom of expression through political correctness are discussed. The party takes positions that can be described as ethno-pluralistic : the right of immigrants of non-European origin to live in Great Britain is accepted if they are “pro-British” and “ assimilated ”, who are recognized as British citizens ( “British in a civic sense ” ), not recognized as “ indigeniously British ” . In principle, the party holds fast to a folk nationalism . The number of non-white residents is to be drastically reduced, for which the party wants to set up “clear but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to go home”. Further immigration should be stopped immediately. The party is also openly against " mixed marriages ". Some members who were not of European origin left the party. The party advocates “traditional family values”, rejects abortion and public display of homosexuality, as well as any form of homosexual partnerships. In contrast to earlier statements, the party today refers positively to the achievements of British soldiers in World War II and used, for example, excerpts from speeches by Winston Churchill , which was heavily criticized by his grandson Nicholas Soames. Membership in the EU is rejected. The BNP sees itself today as pro- Israel , which it justifies primarily with the dangers of Islamism . In the past, however, members have also made anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements.

International

At the European level, the BNP is a member of the Alliance of European National Movements , an association of nationalist right-wing extremist parties. The two BNP MPs in the European Parliament were non-attached .

Outlines

The youth organization of the BNP is the Young BNP .

Board

  • Chairman: Adam Walker

Individual evidence

  1. Green Party membership on course to overtake Ukip's. In: http://www.newstatesman.com . January 14, 2015, accessed January 28, 2015 .
  2. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00313220500045170
  3. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/014466607X264103/abstract
  4. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00313220601118777
  5. Der Standard : Right-wing National Party must open up to non-white members
  6. Torsten Wenzler: Adolescent right-wing extremism in a political and educational overview - an overview. LIT-Verlag, series "Erziehungswissenschaft", Vol. 43, 2001, p. 99.
  7. Thomas Greven: Globalized right-wing extremism? The extremist right in the era of globalization . VS Verlag, 2006. ISBN 3531145142 , pp. 174f. ( Online in Google Book Search).
  8. Grffin: I am not a Nazi (English)
  9. BBC : Griffin attacks Islam on BBC show
  10. Right and right: The French Front National promotes democracy, the British nationalists remain true to themselves
  11. ^ The British National Party and the Holocaust. newstatesman.com, April 14, 2010
  12. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/green-party-membership-will-overtake-ukip-within-a-week-new-research-predicts-9977866.html

literature

  • Nigel Copsey: Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and its Quest for Legitimacy: Houndmills / New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2004: ISBN 1-4039-0214-3 .
  • Thomas Grumke , Andreas Klärner: Right-wing extremism, the social question and globalization criticism - A comparative study on Germany and Great Britain since 1990, Berlin 2006 PDF file .
  • Andrew Sykes: The Radical Right in Britain: From Social Imperialism to the British National Party: Houndsmills: New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2005: ISBN 0-333-59924-1 .

Web links

Commons : British National Party  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files