Republican quits job over ‘snub’ wrangle

Date: 26/09/02

A LEADING European member of George W. Bush's Republican party has resigned his post after accusing Washington-based colleagues who visited Brussels last weekend of snubbing potential allies in the European Parliament.

French-American Christian de Fouloy said he had stepped down from the chairmanship of Republicans Abroad Belgium, which he had held for two years, following a disagreement with Ann Wagner, chairwoman of the Republican Party's national executive in the US.

According to de Fouloy, Wagner cancelled meetings with the Parliament's biggest political group, the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), at short notice.

De Fouloy said he had arranged for Wagner and her entourage to meet EPP Parliamentary chairman Hans-Gert Pöttering and former Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens, the group's president.

He said that Wagner's actions were not in the spirit of a letter she had sent to the SME Union, the business lobby with strong links to the EPP, in February. In it, she indicated that the Republicans wished to foster closer ties with like-minded political organisations such as the EPP.

'This [cancellation] is like going to London and saying I don't care about Westminster,' he added. 'Or going to Washington and saying I don't care about Congress.'

However, Wagner told European Voice she knew nothing about the meetings. And one of her aides denied they had been scheduled.

Her whistlestop European tour - which also included brief stays in London and Paris - was primarily designed to encourage Americans living overseas to register for forthcoming mid-term elections through their embassies, she said.

A leading European member of George W. Bush's Republican party has resigned his post after accusing Washington-based colleagues who visited Brussels recently of snubbing potential allies in the European Parliament.