Robert Spencer comments on the Vlaams Belang controversy: Vlaams Belang, Charles Johnson, and all that.

Am I, as an American, being too demanding in this, and manifesting a misunderstanding of European politics? Maybe. But that is beside the point, because there are many Europeans also — not the elites, but ordinary citizens — who will have nothing to do with any party with such ties unless and until they do make such a break. There is no one else in Europe who is fighting the fight? Very well — that in itself is part of the problem. I think the conference itself was a sign that the VB and the SD want to enter the mainstream, and take positions that will allow more Europeans to join the counterjihad. I know their representatives are much more concerned right now with politics in their own countries than with a blogger fight, and that is entirely reasonable and to be expected. But I hope they will eventually address the concerns that have been raised. And until they do, there is nothing unreasonable at all about approaching them with extreme reservation.

What Robert is saying here is exactly the point I’ve been making from the start. But I would offer one additional caveat: that the conference may indeed have been a sign that the VB and SD want to enter the mainstream, but whether this is from a sincere effort to renounce extremism, or an effort to gain false legitimacy by associating with the anti-jihad movement, is open to debate.

Meanwhile, in the comments for his post, open supporters of the BNP appear, as well as several former LGF posters banned for racism and/or eliminationist rhetoric.

UPDATE at 11/15/07 7:55:42 am:

In a related story, the European coalition of neo-xenophobes has fallen apart: Demise of the Euro-Racists: Xenophobia Scuppers EU Far-Right Group.

The Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty Group is no more. The bloc of far-right parties in the European Parliament has been disolved following a racism row: The Romanians refused to work with Alessandro Mussolini after her derogatory comments about their compatriots.

The European Parliament’s first far-right parliamentary bloc fell apart on Wednesday, less than a year after it had formed, after its Romanian members opted to leave the group — ironically because of the racism of a fellow group member.

The Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty Group (ITS) was stripped of its official status because it fell short of the minimum of 20 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) needed to form a parliamentary group. The collection of xenophobes, Euroskeptics and far-right nationalists are now losing tens of thousands of euros in funding and will have less speaking time in parliament.

The collapse of the group was sparked by derogatory comments about Romanians by Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini and a member of the group. Mussolini had told a Romanian newspaper that law-breaking had become “a way of life for Romanians” after the arrest of a Romanian man on charges of murdering the wife of an Italian naval officer in Rome two weeks ago. The crime led to the Italian government rushing through a decree that would allow police to deport EU citizens, particularly Romanians.

Last week the Greater Romania Party’s five members announced they intended to withdraw from the bloc in protest at Mussolini’s comments unless she were removed.

The formation of the far-right grouping had been made possible after Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union on Jan. 1, 2007, bringing with it five Romanian and one Bulgarian extreme-right MEPs into the parliament. The ITS group that was cobbled together included Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front from France and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang. From the beginning there were doubts as to how long parties from various countries whose raison d’être is to oppose immigration and foreigners would manage to work together.