Social Democrat leader says Civic Democrats keeping bad company

Social Democrat leader Jiří Paroubek has called on the Civic Democratic Party to publicly distance itself from the Latvian For Fatherland and Freedom party and the Polish Law and Justice party with which it has allied itself within the new right-wing faction in the European Parliament. Paroubek said the Latvian nationalist party supported the annual marches of veterans of Latvian SS divisions and the Polish party held the view that homosexuality was an illness. The Social Democrat leader said that at a time of growing extremism an alliance with such parties was scandalous. Civic Democrat MEP Jan Zahradil rejected the accusations, saying they were an attempt to discredit the new right-wing faction in the EP which was a thorn in the flesh of many politicians.