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It has been suggested that this article be merged with Far right in Poland. (Discuss) Proposed since July 2008.

Narodowe Odrodzenie Polski (NOP) (National Rebirth of Poland) is a minor nationalist political party in Poland (reaching 0.6% of the popular vote in regional elections as of 2006). It is a member of European National Front and a co-founder of International Third Position.

History and politics

The NOP registered as a political party in 1992. It claims to be the reincarnation of National Radical Camp, the pre-war nationalist youth organisation, which was banned in 1934.

NOP publishes magazine Szczerbiec (the name of the Polish royal coronation sword), which lists neofascists Derek Holland and Roberto Fiore among the members of its editorial board, Młodzież Narodowa (National Youth), Myśl (The Thought), and Biuletyn NOP. The publishing house was closed after 1989 and the collapse of the Communist regime.

In 2001 NOP membership in Poland was estimated at 500, consisting mainly of neo-Nazi skinheads · .

In 2001 NOP tried to enter parliamentary politics for the first time. Newly created NOP front organization the New Forces Alliance (Sojusz Nowych Sil) joined nationalist electoral bloc Alternative Social Movement (Ruch Spoleczny Alternatywa, RSA). Among the NOP candidates were Marcin Radzewicz, the leader of openly neo-Nazi National Socialist Front (Front Narodowo-Socjalistyczny). RSA gained just below 0.5% of the votes and the alliance was dissolved.

In the 2005 Polish parliamentary elections, the NOP reeived 0.06% of the vote. In the 2006 self-government regional elections, it received 0.64%.

In 2006, the NOP was involved in campaigning to free convicted British historian David Irving from prison in Austria, and produced a poster that states, "David Irving - Uwolnić prawdę" ("David Irving - Free the truth"). The party also expressed support for the bombing of Israel at the time of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, with a poster image stating, "Bomby na Izrael - Już czas !!!" ("Bombs against Israel - it's about time!!!"). On August 13, 2006, NOP leader Adam Gmurczyk published a declaration on behalf of the NOP Executive Council titled Izrael musi zostać zniszczony! (Israel must be destroyed!), calling for the international military takeover of Israel, and offering to put administrative control of Jerusalem in the hands of Pope Benedict XVI, and his successors.

NOP is known for trying to get media attention with its shock value campaigns . During 2007 parliamentary and Senate elections NOP distributed election campaign posters with slogan "Fashism? We are worse".

Another openly homophobic shock value campiagn conducted by NOP, was called Zakaz Pedałowania (Forbid Homosexuality). On 17 May, 2006 in Toruń NOP organized a counter-demonstration against LGBT rights supporters public meeting. NOP members chanted slogans, including "gas the queers" (pedały do gazu), "there will be a baton for each queer face" (znajdzie się kij na pedalski ryj). ·

Party program

The official NOP's program includes:

• Interest of the whole (Polish) nation is always before everything - social class, religion beliefs, skin color or politic views.
• Minimal government bureaucracy.
• It wants to end conscription and to introduce a voluntary army.
• The party is pro-life and thus opposes euthanasia and abortion.
• It is against same-sex marriage and LGBT adoption.
• Strong opposition to EU and NATO.
• Decommunization and Lustration.
• It postulates a return of capital punishment (for murderers, rapists, pedophiles, trade of narcotics, organized crime and for acting against the state of Poland) also big penalties for anything against moral acting such as corruption.
• It is against any form of socialism and liberalism on the moral and economic way of life.
• National Rebirth of Poland says that the party's ideology can't fit in any form of left-wing and right-wing so it calls itself the "Third Position movement".

Anti-Semitism and racism

The NOP is stated to be an anti-Semitic organisation by a large number of organisations worldwide. ·  ·  ·  ·  ·

• According to the British historian, Dr John Pollard, neo-Nazi element in the NOP, their racism and homophobia continue to give rise to concern in other member countries of the European Union.

• In March 2000, in Lodz, Swastikas and the slogan "Jews out!" was spraypainted on the home of Marek Edelman, who was the deputy commander in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the last of the leaders of the uprising still alive. The incident was condemned by the president and prime minister of Poland who sent Edelman letters of support and apology.

• The Anti-Defamation League states that the NOP is an openly anti-Semitic extremist organization.

• According to The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism NOP is promoting violent forms of neo-fascism and antisemitism, including Holocaust denial.

• According to the magazine The Warsaw voice, the manifesto of the National Revival of Poland which contains a sentence stating that "Jews will be removed from Poland, and their possessions will be confiscated" is taken directly from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. The magazine also claims that the official greeting gesture used in the party is the Nazi-like gesture of the raised arm.

• According to The Jewish Press, On April 14, 2007 in Krakow anti-Semitic slogans were shouted and Fascist-like gestures made by the participants of the NOP demonstration. Investigation made by the Public Prosecutor’s Office was discontinued on November 26, 2007 as no perpetrators were identified and the case was not classified as an offense.

• According to European Roma Rights Centre on July 3, 1998 NOP vandalised Roma community centre in Łódź. Along with racist graffiti swastikas were sprayed on the office walls. The perpetrators also left behind their signature as NOP - Narodowe Odrodzenie Polski. During the same night same group reportedly vandalised the premises of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious group.

References

1. ^ Michael Shafir Varieties of Antisemitism in Post-communist East Central Europe: Motivations and Political Discourse
2. Poland 2001-2, by Stephen Roth Institute
3. ^ Poland 2000-1 by Stephen Roth Institute
4. Cas Mudde (2005). Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe. London: Routledge. p. 162. ISBN 0415355931. OCLC 55228719.
5. Elections 2005 on Gazeta Wyborcza website (en)
6. http://www.nop.org.pl/img/irving.jpg
7. http://www.nop.org.pl/img/bomby.jpg
8. Narodowe Odrodzenie Polski, Izrael musi zostać zniszczony!
9. http://www.wiadomosci24.pl/artykul/wyborczy_slogan_nop_u_jestesmy_gorsi_od_faszyzmu_44429.html
10. http://www.wiadomosci24.pl/artykul/wyborczy_slogan_nop_u_jestesmy_gorsi_od_faszyzmu_44429.html
11. « Zakaz Pedałowania » on NOP's website (pl)
12. United Nations Human Rights Council
13. Amnesty International Polska
14. NOP's official program(pl)
15. « Plakatem w żyda », Dziennik Wschodni, 17 January 2006
16. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2006, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor US State Dept.
17. International Religious Freedom Report 2007 US State Dept.
18. European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) Third report on Poland Adopted on 17 December 2004
19. Poland 2004, by Stephen Roth Institute
20. John Pollard ‘Clerical Fascism’: Context, Overview and Conclusion in: Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 11, June 2007
21. Anti-Semitic Incidents - March 2000, by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
22. Poland: Democracy and the Challenge of Extremism, by Anti-Defamation League, 2006
23. Poland 2006, by Stephen Roth Institute
24. ^ RACE: Fighting Fascism, Warsaw Voice, 31 July 2003
25. « Anti-Semitic Incidents In Poland », The Jewish Press, March 26, 2008
26. http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=88

External links

• Official website NOP
• Nacjonalista.pl web portal of Polish nationalist movement
• Szczerbiec, newspaper of NOP

• Articles to be merged from July 2008
• Political parties in Poland
• Nationalist parties
• Political parties established in 1981