Conference turris::scandia

392.0. "Danish anarchists protest right-winger meeting" by NEILS::SAVAGE () Mon May 14 1990 11:25

    From: [email protected] (JULIAN M. ISHERWOOD)
    Newsgroups: clari.news.group,clari.news.gov.international,
    clari.news.europe,clari.news.demonstration
    Subject: Police, anti-racism protesters clash in Denmark
    Keywords: international, special interest, non-usa government, government,
	violent demonstrations, demonstrations
    Date: 11 May 90 15:22:37 GMT
    Location: denmark
    Slugword: rightists
 
 
    	ELSINORE, Denmark (UPI) -- Anti-racism protesters hurling
    firecrackers and stones clashed with riot police Friday outside a hotel
    where right-wing members of the European Parliament had been meeting
    earlier in the day.	Police sealed off the Marienlyst Hotel in Elsinore,
    18 miles north of Copenhagen, to prevent demonstrators from approaching
    the area where French National Front Party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and
    West German Republican Party leader Frantz Schonhuber were meeting
    along with 15 other lawmakers.
    
    	More than 600 banner-waving demonstrators protested outside the
    hotel, held at bay by riot police and police dogs. But when Le Pen
    departed through a hotel back entrance, a small group of the protesters
    wearing masks and helmets began throwing firecrackers and stones at
    police.
    
    	Despite appeals by the leaders of the protest, the group of
    protesters belonging to the BZ anarchist Danish youth organization
    continued to attack police, prompting the authorities to counterattack.
    Police said two protesters were detained and two police officers were
    slightly injured in the clash.  Demonstrations continued Friday
    afternoon in Elsinore and riot police were to continue patrolling the
    town until evening.
    
    	In a press briefing at the conclusion of the meeting by right-wing
    lawmakers, Le Pen told reporters he firmly condemned the desecration
    Wednesday of 34 graves at a Jewish cemetery in the French town of
    Carpentras.	A man "with a strong Arab accent" telephoned the newspaper
    Vaucluse Matin to claim responsibility for the vandalism on behalf of
    the previously unknown Mohammed El Boukima organization. Thirty-four
    tombstones were damaged and a corpse was mutilated in the incident.	
    "This macabre event was carried out by professional provocateurs," Le
    Pen said. "No one wants the perpatrators of this infamy and their
    accomplices -- however highly placed they are -- to be punished with
    all the force of law more than I do."  He said the desecration seemed
    aimed at compromising his National Front Party, which he firmly denied
    had anything to do with the incident.
    
    	Le Pen and Schonhuber went on to say new immigration rules should
    be imposed in Europe to prevent an influx of non-Europeans.	"What is
    going to happen when the countries of North Africa fall prey to
    fundamentalists. We risk a wave of immigrants rolling over Europe," Le
    Pen said. He added such an influx would cause racism to flourish.	"We
    must stop it before it begins," he added.
    
    	Schonhuber told reporters his party did not accept the idea that a
    unified Germany should accept the current border with Poland. A part of
    Germany known as Silesia was ceded to Poland at the end of World War
    II.	"We have three main demands," Schonhuber said.	"We want a double
    language status for Silesia (Poland), a customs union between Silesia
    and Germany and self-determination of the population of Silesia,"
    Schonhuber said, repeating his party's earlier demands. Asked whether
    he would like to be the Fuhrer (leader) of a united Germany, Schonhuber
    quipped: "I would like to be the Fuhrer of the world. I hope you
    understand irony."  He added his party had already begun organizing
    itself in East Germany, where the Republican Party is illegal, saying
    he envisaged major support in the country, "in particular among the
    young people who are very anti-communist."
    
    	Le Pen and Schonhuber were to leave Denmark Friday after being
    shunned by Denmark's political and governmental establishment, none of
    whom were willing to meet any of the 17-member group of right-wing
    lawmakers.	Denmark's right-wing Progress Party declined an invitation
    to hold talks with the rightist European Parliament group.