Keeping UKIP out of the European parliament

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Keeping UKIP out of the European parliament

Romanians, Bulgarians and other European groups living in Britain are campaigning to stop the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from winning seats in the EU elections this month. Because UKIP are against immigrants.

One of the campaign groups is AARBD, who do not like the discrimination against Romanians and Bulgarians. They started in December last year to fight against the constant bad image of Eastern European migrants.

When Romanian Victor Spirescu landed at Luton airport on 1 January 2014, there were many television cameras. He arrived on the day when working restrictions for Romanians and Bulgarians ended. So he was at the centre of the British immigration debate.

Britain’s tabloid newspapers had warned there would be an “invasion” of many Romanians and Bulgarians looking for jobs and benefits. But this did not happen. So Spirescu became famous instead.

Tommy Tomescu is a 32-year-old Romanian dentist who has lived in London since 2010. ‘What they said about us in the newspapers was wrong,’ said Tommy, who started AARBD. ‘They did not talk about professionals like doctors or architects; they only wrote negative facts and lies.'

‘The Romanian and Bulgarian communities decided to fight back when they saw that this affects people’s everyday lives. We wanted to give a voice to our communities, to fight against racism.’

The UKIP party does not want to be part of Europe. They have nearly doubled in popularity in the last 12 months. People think UKIP will do well in the European Parliamentary elections on 22-25 May.

Because of this, groups like Tomescu’s AARBD and the ‘New Europeans’ want to be the voice of Europeans in Britain. In Lincoln, two Polish candidates and one Lithuanian will be standing for election as independents against UKIP. They want migrants to vote for them as alternative, progressive candidates.

NOW READ THE ORIGINAL: http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2014/05/01/uk-independence-party-europe/ (This article has been simplified so the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed).