British Tories embarrassed in EU Parliament

This past Sunday, the New York Times profiled British Conservative party leader (and, if the polls are to be believed, the next Prime Minister) David Cameron, and his attempts to make “conservatism more widely appealing and marketable.” But events in the European Parliament are not helping him:

A controversial right-wing Polish MEP became the main voice of the Conservative Party in Europe yesterday, a further embarrassment for David Cameron’s new group of eurosceptics.

The key role of leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists went to Michal Kaminski, a former spin-doctor for President Kaczynski, even though the Tories are by far the largest party in the eight-nation group[…]

The choice of Mr Kaminski, 37, for leader raised eyebrows because of his firebrand past. In 1999 he attracted headlines in Poland when, as an MP, he travelled to London to pay homage to General Augusto Pinochet.

As a young man he not only associated with the far-right National Revival of Poland but also a hardline Catholic organisation, the Christian-National Union. He is understood to remain an anti-abortionist and opposed to gay rights.

While he was spin-doctor for Mr Kaczynski, the President ran a campaign against the Lisbon Treaty which warned that it would force deeply conservative Poland to accept gay marriages under the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.”

Combined with the Brown government’s failure to turn around Tony Blair’s rapidly-declining bid for the EU presidency, British politicians are quickly learning just how difficult controlling events in Brussels will be in the future. The Poles, on the other hand, are having a pretty good week there. 

GERARD CERLES/AFP/Getty Images