Eurosceptic MEP meets voters at pre-match gathering

Candidate for the Polish presidency Janusz Korwin-Mikke used the soccer game as a chance to meet several hundred voters at a pre-match event in Ballsbridge. The Polish presidential election will be held on May 10th and Polish citizens living here have the right to vote in the elections. The incumbent president Bronislaw Komorowski is a firm favourite to win and various opinion polls have suggested Mr Korwin-Mikke could win between one and seven per cent of the vote.

He is controversial Eurosceptic MEP who was fined by the parliament last year after he refused to apologise for saying 20 million young Europeans were being treated as “negroes” as a result of the minimum wage. He has described women as less intelligent, on average, than men and has spoken of a hypothesis that the attitudes of men are passed to women through their semen.

Last year he allowed a member of his Congress of the New Right party to join Ukip’s parliamentary alliance so that it would retain the funds it was in danger of losing after a member resigned.

He got a warm welcome at the meeting in Ballsbridge and strong applause after he said it would be better that the government be run by monkeys than socialists. Asked what he would do if elected he said he would give people trust to make their own decisions.

He said all drugs should be legal and it was up to the people to decide if they anted to use them or not. “If I want to...smoke cocaine, that is my problem,” he said to loud applause. He claimed the Mafia paid $1.5 billion to the US government to ensure that drugs were not legalised, because the price of drugs would go down.

He also said the former British leader Margaret Thatcher was his hero "because she was also telling the truth...fighting the trade unions".

Mr Korwin-Mikke said he was not allowed on Polish television and the media was biased against him and treated him like an idiot. He believed he had the support of the people, judging by the numbers of people who had attended his meetings. During his speech to the Polish audience, he also criticised co-educational schools, saying it was wrong to teach boys and girls together. He defended the death penalty, saying it brought stability, and said good Europeans should oppose the EU.

Mr Korwin- Mikke attended the game between Ireland and Poland at the Aviva Stadium afterwards.