The usual suspects from the press have predictably attacked UKIP and the Conservatives for their European Parliament group members – namely the Finns Party, Danish People’s Party, Swedish Democrats and an independent French MEP.
In the name of fairness, let’s examine three of Labour’s European allies in the S&D:
1. Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP)
Formed in 1989 and operating under a brand of social democracy, the Hungarian Socialist Party (Magyar Szocialista Párt, MSZP) is the descendent and “legal successor” of the Hungarian Socialist Worker’s Party (MSZMP) – a Marxist-Leninist organisation led by Hungary’s last communist dictator János Kádár. After the Hungarian Uprising of 1958, the Soviet Union installed Kádár who eventually presided over an authoritarian police state where over 40,000 dissidents were imprisoned, detained and executed.
After Kádár’s resignation in 1988, MSZMP radicals rebranded the party as the modern-day Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP). Despite efforts of reform, the MSZP is still marred by its heritage, with rumours that communist loyalists still hold influence within the party.
“It [Hungarian Socialist Party] is the partial successor of the communist Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (or MSZMP), which ruled Hungary between 1956 and 1989. The decision to declare the party a successor of the MSZMP was controversial, and still carries repercussions for both the MSZP and Hungary. Another source of controversy is that some members of the former communist elite maintained political influence in the MSZP, a factor which is still true today. Indeed, many key MSZP politician were active members or held leadership positions within the MSZMP.” – Wikipedia
MSZMP’s Kadar (far-right) alongside Gorbachev, Ceausescu, and other leaders of the Eastern Bloc
2. Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSD)
The Social Democratic Party (Partidul Social Democrat, PSD) – the largest party in Romania – formed in 1992 after the dissolution of the National Salvation Front, three years after the removal of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
The party has been criticised for wooing former Communist Party members, attempting to manipulate the country’s state media and interfering with the Romanian judicial system. The PSD has experienced endemic corruption with senior party officials accused of bribery, embezzlement and influence peddling, with several politicians convicted and jailed. The European People’s Party recently reported that the PSD even voted in favour of legislation to acquit party figures of political corruption.
In June 2012, former PSD Prime Minister, Adrian Nastase (himself a Ceausescu loyalist), was jailed for two years for using a publicly-funded construction conference to raise funds for his presidential campaign. In January 2014, Nastase was sentenced to jail for another four years for accepting a €630,000 bribe for appointing a businessman to a position of authority.
In July 2012, PSD county council president, Nicolae Mischie, was jailed for four years for influence peddling and bribery. In the same month, former PSD member of parliament, Catalin Voicu, was sentenced to five years in prison without parole for political corruption, and was found to have accepted a €260,000 bribe for using his authority to influence legal decisions. Voicu was reported to have “built up a criminal network based on bribery, intimidation and extortion” and his sentence was increased to seven years following review.
In April 2013, PSD Senator Nicolae Badalau was prosecuted for using his political influence to advantage a trading firm involved in fraudulent financial transactions.
The PSD has faced accusations of peddling anti-Semitism, with PSD Senator Dan Sova publicly denying several aspects of the Holocaust in 2012 and later refusing to apologise. In 2009, PSD Mayor Radu Mazare, was seen dressed as a Wehrmacht officer at a fashion show who “entered the stage marching the clearly identifiable Nazi ‘goose step'” alongside his teenage son dressed as a Nazi Stormtrooper.
Former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase – one of several senior PSD figures jailed for corruption
Anti-semitic: Mayor Radu Mazare (above) dressed as a Nazi Wehrmacht officer at a fashion show and goosestepped alongside his son dressed as a Stormtrooper
3. Polish Democratic Left Alliance (SLD)
The Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, SLD), currently the third opposition party in Poland, consists of a coalition of the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland (SDRP) and Polish Social Democratic Union, formed from the remains of the Polish United Workers Party (PZPR).
The PZPR governed the People’s Republic of Poland during its communist rule until its dissolution in 1990 where it operated a strict authoritarian, autocratic regime – leading to the imprisonment and execution of hundreds of dissidents.
The SLD’s current supporters are “middle-rank state sector employees” and former communist party loyalists; its core coalition party, the SDRP, actively opposes lustration and the de-communisation of Poland.
Lezsek Miller, the SLD’s current party leader, is a former PZPR elected official and Soviet loyalist who established the SDRP in 1992 after the collapse of the PZPR.
The SLD was ravaged by a series of scandals involving political corruption and influence peddling in the early 2000s. One such scandal seen several senior SLD politicians embroiled – including Leszek Miller (then Polish Prime Minister) – in a $17,500,000 bribery probe, in one of the largest corruption cases in Polish history: the Rywin affair.
In 2004, the SLD government was involved in another controversy concerning the privatisation of Poland’s nationalised oil refinery, PKN Orlen. PKN Orlen’s CEO was unexpectedly arrested, which was, shortly afterwards, revealed to have been a decision taken in secret Leszek Miller and his cabinet to block the signing of a €17 billion oil contract.
At the time, 69% of Poles placed political corruption as the “biggest social problem in Poland“. The SLD experienced dramatic electoral decline, falling from its peak of 41% of the popular vote in 2001 to taking only 9% of votes cast in the 2014 European Parliament elections.
Former Polish SLP Prime Minister Leszek Miller – embroiled in a series of scandals, including a $17,500,000 bribery case
The Sceptic 