National Party of Europe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Party of Europe (NPE) was an initiative undertaken by a number of far right parties in Europe during the 1960s to help increase cross-border co-operation and work towards European unity.
The idea of a NPE began when Oswald Mosley launched his Europe a Nation campaign after World War II at a time when contemporaries such as Jean-François Thiriart were also becoming interested in Europeanism. The idea came to fruition at the Conference of Venice in 1962 when the leaders of the Union Movement, the Deutsche Reichspartei, the Italian Social Movement, Jeune Europe and the Mouvement d'Action Civique came together to form this group. The European Declaration at Venice was released on March 1, 1962 and contained the following tem aims:
- The creation of Europe a Nation through a common European government.
- The creation of an elected European parliament.
- The continuation of national parliaments with their authority limited to social and cultural matters.
- Economics to be driven by the wage-price mechanism to ensure fair wages and economic growth.
- The creation of an economic alternative to capitalism and communism.
- More worker control and less bureaucracy in nationalized industries.
- The withdrawal of American and Soviet forces from Europe.
- An end to the role of the United Nations with the USA, USSR and Europe acting as three equals.
- Decolonization with a move to set up single-ethnic governments in former colonies.
- Europe to be defined as mainland territory outside of the USSR, the United Kingdom, overseas territiories and around one-third of Africa.
The Conference also decided that each member party should seek to change their name to NPE or the local equivalent, that the motto of the new group should be 'Progress - Solidarity - Unity' and that the Flash and Circle should serve as the emblem of the movement.
Despite the high ambitions the idea did not come to much. Leadership of the NPE was largely with Mosley and his 1968 retirement meant that the idea fell by the wayside. Equally none of the parties changed their name as had been decided. The success of the Italian Social Movement and the emergence of the National Democratic Party of Germany saw these movements drift from the notion of NPE as did Thiriart's moves towards National Bolshevism and a possible reconciliation with the Soviets.
A group by the name of European Action continues to agitate for the aims of the NPE through its newspaper of the same name, edited by Robert Edwards, although it is decidedly British in make-up. It has re-issued the principles of the 1962 European Declaration at Venice.
