With Europe’s migration debate turning against them, left-wing groups in the European Parliament are lashing out—accusing a conservative MEP of Holocaust rhetoric for backing deportations.
After MEPs last week approved tougher detention and deportation rules for illegal migrants, Sweden Democrats MEP Charlie Weimers welcomed the shift, declaring that “the era of deportations has begun.”
Leaders of four groups—S&D, Renew, the Greens/EFA, and the Left—have since branded the remark a “shocking example of incitement to hate,” going so far as to call it a “reference to the Holocaust,” and urging European Parliament President Roberta Metsola to sanction Weimers.
“Hate,” they say, “has no place in the European Union.”
Democracy demands respect, not hatred.
Along with other groups, Renew Europe condemns the surge of verbal violence and 'deportation' rhetoric in the European Parliament.
We call on @EP_President Metsola to sanction those who are undermining our dignity!
Weimers on Tuesday criticised the Left for “once again weaponising the Holocaust to smear political opponents,” and stressed: “‘Deportation rhetoric’ isn’t hatred. It’s enforcing the law and sending people home who have no legal right to stay.”
Every real country on Earth does it. So should the EU.
He has received an outpouring of support from fellow MEPs who reject what they see as a transparent attempt to distort his remarks.
AfD MEP Tomasz Froelich lamented that while “formerly, liberals stood up for freedom of speech … today, if a conservative accurately uses the straightforward technical term ‘deportation,’ liberals have a total meltdown, accuse him of hate speech, equate him with the Nazis (relativising Nazism this way), and demand sanctions. Ridiculous.”
Finnish foreign policy expert Mikael Lith described this “ideological blindness” as “the reason why the Left is sinking from one country to the next.”
And Dutch MEP Marieke Ehlers expressed her hope that “these whining ‘liberals’ get the same non-reply [from Metsola] as I did when a member literally called me a murderer in the hemicycle.”
The same left-wing groups have also urged the Parliament president to sanction members of so-called “far-right” parties for “shouting and loudly applauding” in the chamber—as well as targeting a Spanish blogger.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
