Sinn Fein abstain on ‘funding from Russia’ motion in the European Parliament…

Interesting piece in passing. 70.8% of MEPs voted in favour of a resolution calling for a ban on funding of political parties in the EU by non-EU “political or economic stakeholders”. Sinn Fein’s group (many of them former communists) was against the motion. All four of Sinn Fein’s MEP’s abstained, and are marked as GUE-NGL rebels by Vote Watch.

The BBC reports

Much of the text lambasted the Russian government for its crackdown on political opponents, gay activists and civil society groups (NGOs).

It said the parliament “is deeply concerned at the ever more intensive contacts and co-operation, tolerated by the Russian leadership, between European populist, fascist and extreme right-wing parties on the one hand and nationalist groups in Russia on the other”.

Such contacts, it said, were “a danger to democratic values and the rule of law in the EU”. EU states should “take action against this threat of an emerging ‘Nationalist International’,” it said.

Not too much of a problem apparently if you are shipping in the cash from the US or Canada or Australia. Which is presumably why the SF MEPs could not go quite as far as voting against the motion.

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