Martin Schulz - Incident With Godfrey Bloom

Incident With Godfrey Bloom

On 24 November 2010 the British MEP Godfrey Bloom caused a row in the European Parliament when he interrupted a speech by Martin Schulz, heckling him with the Nazi propaganda slogan ‘Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer’ (‘one people, one empire, one leader’) and accusing him of being an ‘undemocratic fascist’. In the debate on the future of the Euro Stability Pact Schulz had criticised the role played by the United Kingdom, which was involved in the discussions despite not being a member of the eurozone, and said that some eurosceptics would take pleasure in the collapse of the European Union. Following the incident, the President of Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, excluded Bloom from the Chamber. The Dutch MEP Barry Madlener, from the right-wing populist Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV - Freedom Party), then protested against that decision, on the grounds that Schulz himself had recently described the PVV MEP Daniël van der Stoep as a fascist, but had not been excluded from the Chamber.