Tories attacked over links to party that honours Waffen SS

A party that honours Latvia’s Waffen SS veterans was named among David Cameron’s new allies, as the Conservatives identified members of their anti- federalist group in the European Parliament. One MEP from Latvia’s For Fatherland and Freedom Party (LNNK) will be among the 55 MEPs from eight countries in the European Conservatives and Reformists group, which the Tory leader pledged to form during his leadership campaign in 2005. The Conservatives have been criticised by their own former MEPs for leaving the main centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) group of 264 MEPs in Strasbourg, distancing themselves from the parties of Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel.

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The Conservatives’ other main allies include nine MEPs from the ODS of Mirek Topolánek, the former Czech Prime Minister photographed naked at a party at Silvio Berlusconi’s villa. They also recruited one MEP each from a Christian party in the Netherlands, a nationalist Flemish party, a Finnish liberal and a Hungarian former finance minister.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6554672.ece