US white-nationalist Richard Spencer not welcome in Poland - FM
Plans for the US white-nationalist Richard Spencer to visit Poland for Independence Day celebrations have been met with strong opposition from the country’s foreign ministry. The ‘alt-right’ leader promotes racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic ideas, it said.
“In connection with the information regarding the planned participation of Richard B. Spencer in a seminar organised by the National Social Congress on the occasion of this year’s Independence Day celebrations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its strong opposition to visits to Poland by individuals who propagate views that are based on racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic ideas,” read a statement from the ministry on Thursday.
Statement: MFA is opposed to any visits to #Poland of people who propagate racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic ideas. pic.twitter.com/w1pjzdGXr0
— Poland MFA🇵🇱 (@PolandMFA) October 26, 2017
Spencer, head of the right-wing National Policy Institute, was announced as a speaker for a “Future of Europe” conference, organized by the Polish far-right National Social Congress (KNS) at start of this month. The event is scheduled for November 10, the day before Polish Independence Day.However, the ministry believes that Spencer’s “slogans referring to Nazism do not correspond to the character and seriousness of the official events.”
“As a country that was one of the Nazis' biggest victims, we believe that the ideas promoted by Mr Spencer and his followers could pose a threat to all those who hold dear the values of human rights and democracy,” the statement read, adding that Spencer’s views contradict the country’s legal order. While the ministry has expressed its opposition to Spencer’s visit, it did not state whether he may be refused entry to the country when he travels for the event.
The statement followed calls by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) for the organizers and authorities to withdraw Spencer from the list of speakers. “Spencer’s views threaten not only the Jewish community, but all minority groups,” director of the AJC Central Europe, Agnieszka Markiewicz, wrote on Monday, adding that the event was “the worst possible setting for this character to spew his poison.”
In 2014, Spencer was deported from Hungary after authorities banned him from holding a conference in Budapest, referring to the panellists as "proponents of racist ideologies.”
