Pöttering orders books removed from Parliament shops

Hans-Gert Pöttering, the president of the European Parliament, has ordered bookshops in the Parliament to remove from sale copies of an anti-Semitic book.

Pöttering’s staff asked the manager of the Parliament's two kiosks to stop selling ‘Les Protocoles de Sion’, a novel by two Belgian authors which is based on a number of conspiracy theories including the infamous ‘protocols of the elders of Zion’, a faked document alleging Jewish plans for world domination. The book reproduces the text of the protocols in full. The protocols, which are supposed to have been written by senior Jewish leaders, first started circulating at the end of the 19th century and are referred to in Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ as proof of Jewish conspiracy theories.

A spokesman for Pöttering said he had instructed the book to be removed and condemned any expression of anti-Semitism.

Polish Socialist MEP and Parliament vice-president Marek Siwiec asked Pöttering to take action after one of his staff saw and purchased the book at the kiosk of the Parliament’s Spinelli building on 9 February.

In a letter to the president, Siwiec said: "The contents of this ‘novel’ stand opposite to all the principles that laid the foundations for the creation of the European Union." Siwiec added that the incident "may be very harmful to the image of this house" and could send a "very negative message to EU citizens" at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe".

Sophie Vonk, the kiosk’s manager, said that she had not ordered the book to sell but had received it as part of a job lot. Asked if she was concerned about the book’s anti-Semitic content, she replied that the book was a novel and she did not have the chance to verify the content of all publications coming into the store.

The incident is the second time the Parliament’s has been associated with anti-Semitic publications after League of Polish Families MEP Maciej Giertych published a pamphlet, ‘Civilisations at War in Europe’, which claims that Jews are "biologically different" from Gentiles.

Hans-Gert Pöttering, the president of the European Parliament, has ordered bookshops in the Parliament to remove from sale copies of an anti-Semitic book.