The leader of the Euroskeptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) , Nigel Farage, clarified his position on Thursday after being accused of “racism” and “xenophobia”.
“I don’t have any problems with Romanians. I have a massive problem with Romania”, Farge declared for CNBC.
According to the party leader, “known criminal organisations” from Romania have moved to Great Britain, after the authorities were forced to allow them passage inside the country, being forced to follow the EU’s legislation regarding free circulation.
UKIP scored a shock success in the EU’s parliamentary elections last weekend, beating the U.K.’s three mainstream parties—the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats— to win 27.5 percent of the U.K. vote.
“Some of these post-communist countries have not made the transition to full western democracy. They have their own minorities, which are discriminated against in a way that is truly shocking when you see it, and organized criminal gangs have got countries like Romania in their grip,” Farage said.
“We, as members of the EU, cannot stop known criminal gangs at the border.”
One of the effects of Ukip’s success after the EU elections was the re initiation of Gandul.info’s “Why don’t you come over campaign”.
Editors of the paper said that the campaign was in attempt to “raise awareness against political extremism”. Gandul.info draws attention through an analysis published on May 27th (two days after the EU election) to the fact that in order to recapture their former audience, centrist parties may feel “the need” to also turn to anti-immigrant propaganda and sentiment, thereby contaminating themselves with extremism.