Extreme right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen yesterday urged Irish people to vote against the new EU treaty in a referendum and said he would be delighted to go to Ireland to defeat what he called "this criminal conspiracy", Seán MacConnellreports from Strasbourg.
During a press conference at the European Parliament, where he launched a national petition in France to demand a referendum, Mr Le Pen said only Irish voters had the right to vote against the building of a "superstate and the denial of democracy".
Asked how he would advise Irish people to vote in the forthcoming referendum, Mr Le Pen said he would be encouraging them to say no to what was a "clever reworking of the failed European constitution".
And would he be prepared to travel to Ireland to help groups or individuals opposed to the treaty? "Obviously I would have to be invited to go and I would have no hesitation in going there to oppose it," he replied.
Mr Le Pen's group in the European Parliament includes Italian MEP Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the fascist leader; Andreas Molzer of the far-right Freedom Party in Austria; and Koenraad Dillen of the right wing Vlaams Belang party in Belgium.
In his presentation Mr Le Pen, leader of the French National Front, attacked the new treaty and said it represented a denial of democracy for the people of Europe.
He claimed 90 per cent of the text was contained in the failed European constitution which had been rejected by the French people and he accused the French government of being afraid to put it to a referendum.
The proposed reduction in the number of commissioners, he said, meant France might not have a commissioner after 2014. He asked who would defend French interests, including the preservation of the Common Agricultural Policy, when this happened.
Mr Le Pen said he and his colleagues were "against eurocracy, globalisation and the creation of a euro state" and what was being proposed was "a criminal conspiracy".
On immigration, Mr Le Pen said the new blue card system being advocated by the EU, which would allow workers with qualifications to come into the union and after three years apply for residency, was a negative move.
"This will cause a brain drain in Latin America and Africa and will completely disadvantage continents already suffering from a loss of their qualified people. I am sure French workers will feel happy that these people are going to be paid three times the average wage in the countries they came from," he said.
Ireland is the only member state planning to hold a referendum on the EU reform treaty agreed in Lisbon last week.