Yahoo Finance EU court overturns fines against MEP for ’shocking’ sexist and racist speeches
A far-right Polish politician has won a court appeal against fines imposed on him by the European Parliament over sexist and racist comments.
Janusz Korwin-Mikke, who was an MEP until March, was stripped of his daily allowance for 40 days by the parliament in response to outbursts against women and migrants.
But he challenged the sanctions in the EU’s General Court, which announced on Thursday that it has ruled in his favour. The European Parliament now faces paying back more than €12,000 to Korwin-Mikke.
The first of the incidents considered by the court came during a debate in June 2016, in which he referred to migrants as “human garbage.” That resulted in him being docked the daily subsistence allowance of €306 for 10 days and suspended for 10 days.
Then last year he intervened in a debate about the gender pay gap to say that “women must earn less than men because they are weaker, they are smaller, they are less intelligent.”
That saw his daily allowance removed for 30 days – effectively a fine of €9,180. He was also suspended from the parliament for 10 days and banned from representing it for a year.
“I will not tolerate such behaviour,” said European Parliament President Atonio Tajani at the time. “By offending all women, the MEP displayed contempt for our most fundamental values.”
The EU’s General Court said the nature of Korwin-Mikke’s comments were “particularly shocking.”
But its judges ruled they did not cause disorder or disruption and therefor were not in breach of the parliament’s rules. The parliament will not have to pay back the €12,240 it fined Korwin-Mikke, unless he lodges an appeal within two months.
The court did though throw out the politician’s request for further compensation, saying there is no evidence that he had been caused “pain and suffering” as a result of the sanctions.
The parliament is yet to respond to a request for a comment by Yahoo UK.
