Senior MEP appeals to commissioners over hate speech

A senior MEP has appealed to EU commissioners Vera Jourova and Didier Reynders to investigate politicians “using hate speech as a political tool”.

 Ilhan Kyuchyuk, a deputy from Bulgaria and a Co-President of the ALDE Party, has written to both officials saying that “politicians themselves are not immune to it.”

In his letter, dated 19 May, the Renew MEP asks, “How are we to criminalize hate speech among our public and educate it properly in the European values if the political class intentionally resort to it?”

The MEP, who is a joint leader of the RE group, cites comments about US Vice President Kamala Harris during her recent trip to  Bulgaria.

In his letter, the MEP states, “Just days ago, the leader of an ultra-nationalist parliamentary party in the Bulgarian Parliament chose to use abusive and derogatory language vis a vis a foreign statesman of an ally country. Mr. Kostadin Kostadinov, the leader of the pro-Russia and anti-EU and anti-NATO party "Vazrazhdane' /'Revival/ used the parliamentary floor for a rude and hateful reference to US Vice President Kamala Harris poking vulgar fun at her name and then calling her "an animal". 

He writes, “One can hardly imagine a more disgusting attitude from a politician. Alas, he is not alone in the European political environment.”

The letter to Jourova, Vice-President for Values and Transparency at the European Commission, and her colleague, EU Commissioner Didier Reynders, says, “We wish we did not have to write this letter of deep concern, whereby we alert you to a trend of growing use of hate speech, and abusive derogatory and discriminatory language in the political debate as well.

“We are strongly supportive and deeply appreciative of the initiative launched by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the Commission itself to extend the list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crime that have been on the rise across Europe and go both offline and online. Indeed, common EU action is needed if we want to curb this trans-border challenge.

“All our societies are literally plagued by this phenomenon. It is, however, getting worse by the day since even those who are called upon to fight it, the politicians themselves, are not immune to it.

“We therefore appeal to you to look into the big issue of politicians using hate speech as a political tool.You may rest assured that in doing so, you will have an overwhelming support both in the European Parliament and on the national scale.”

To prevent and counter the spread of illegal hate speech online, the Commission has agreed with Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube a “Code of conduct on countering this.Last December, von der Leyen in her 2020 state of the union speech, presented an initiative to extend the list of ‘EU crimes' to hate speech and hate crime.

At the time, the Commission said, “Hate speech and hate crime have seen a sharp rise across Europe and have become a particularly serious and worrying phenomenon – offline and online. Common EU action is needed to tackle this EU-wide challenge. However, currently there is no legal basis to criminalise hate speech and hate crime at EU level.”

Kostadin Kostadinov was not immediately available for comment.

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