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British eurosceptic thrown out of EU parliament for Nazi comments

Nov 24, 2010, 10:13 GMT

Strasbourg, France - A British member of the European parliament was thrown out of a debate on Wednesday, after quoting Nazi slogans in German in the chamber.

'Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer (One People, One Kingdom, One Fuehrer),' said Godfrey Bloom from the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which wants Britain's exit from the EU.

He was speaking in Strasbourg, France, during a debate on plans for greater EU economic coordination, taking place against the backdrop of Ireland's debt crisis and in the presence of the EU's political and executive leaders, Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso.

Bloom's words, pronounced in reaction to EU Social Democrat party leader Martin Schulz' calls for more cohesion between eurozone countries, caused a predictable stir.

'That goes too far,' said Joseph Daul, a Frenchman who leads the parliamentary caucus of the conservative European People's Party. But Bloom refused to apologize, and instead upped the ante by calling Schulz an 'undemocratic fascist.'

EU parliament speaker then Jerzy Buzek ordered Bloom out, who left the chamber with a wave of his hand.

The incident was reminiscent of another Nazi-inspired slur, also involving Schulz.

During a 2003 debate over Italy's upcoming turn at the helm of the EU presidency, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called the German politician a 'kapo' - a term used to describe the prisoners employed by the Nazis to guard on other prisoners in concentration camps.

Unlike Bloom, Berlusconi was not thrown out, as parliamentary rules did not allow it.

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