UK: Brexit Party’s MEPs turn backs on EU anthem

LONDON

Brexit Party MEPs turned their backs during the playing of the European anthem at a ceremony marking the opening day of the European parliament on Tuesday.

The 29 MEPs, including party head Nigel Farage, turned to face the wall as an opera singer and a saxophone quartet began playing an Ode to Joy by Beethoven. The stunt took place during the opening ceremony of the European parliament in Strasbourg.

Antonio Tajani, president of the parliament, criticized the MEPs as well as those who did not stand during the anthem saying that “it is a question of respect; it doesn’t mean that you necessarily share the views of the European Union. If you listen to the anthem of another country you rise to your feet”.

Alternatively, the Liberal Democrats party, whose 16 MEPs are campaigning to remain in the EU, entered the legislature wearing their symbolic yellow T-shirts with their campaign slogan “Bollocks to Brexit” emblazoned on the front.

Chris Davies, a re-elected Liberal Democrat MEP speaking to the Guardian on serving his full five-year term, said that “if Brexit isn’t delivered by 31 October I don’t think it will happen. There is no majority in the country; there is no majority in the House of Commons”.

When asked if the slogan his fellow colleagues trumpeted was unprofessional, Davies said that “I say no. ‘I am here for five years. Bollocks to Brexit.’ And I get the same reaction every time: a big smile. It’s amazing how well Bollocks to Brexit translates into 24 different languages”.

The Brexit Party, together with the German CDU-CSU alliance, is the joint largest party in the European parliament and although Farage has often used this fact to boast of his position within the chamber, he is unable to build a pan-European alliance and thus will no longer have an allotted speaking time in the chamber.

The U.K. was expected to have left the EU in March. However, three months later Britain’s 73 MEPs have taken up their positions in the European parliament where they are expected to remain until Oct. 31, on which their positions will expire if the U.K. leaves the EU.