Select date

May 2024
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Farage’s Brexit Party MEPs turn their backs on EU Parliament opening ceremony

2-7-2019 < RT 8 250 words
 

A group of 29 MEPs from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party symbolically turned their backs on the European anthem as they were sworn in during the EU Parliament’s opening ceremony on Tuesday.


As the newly elected politicians took their seats for the first time, they turned around as the European anthem ‘Ode to Joy’ rang out in the parliament building in Strasbourg.


Also on rt.com Who are they? Farage refuses to name 100 new Brexit Party candidates, sparking vetting concerns

Prior to the protest, leader Farage said he had a “funny feeling” that his MEPs would still be there come November 1, despite the UK’s date for leaving the bloc currently being set for October 31, and the expected incoming prime minister Boris Johnson has vowed to leave the union by then with or without a deal.


“We’re not going to sit in there and listen to our country be talked down,” Farage told reporters during a photoshoot outside the parliament building. “At the first sign of insult, they will know we’re here, don’t worry about that.” 


Brexit Party MEPs also flew miniature British flags in yet another symbolic act of defiance.



Meanwhile, anti-Brexit Liberal Democrat Party MEPs carried out their own ostentatious protest, by wearing their ‘Boll**ks to Brexit’ t-shirts to the session.



Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!


Subscribe to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won’t tell you.


Print