RELATIVES and supporters of those who fought in the International Brigades have said that the European Union’s decision to equate nazism with communism is an “unforgivable insult.”

At the International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT)’s annual general meeting in London on Saturday, members voted to condemn the European Parliament’s vote in September that unambiguously condemned “totalitarian ideologies.”

The EU vote has been widely seen as an attempt to appease far-right governments in central and eastern European countries.

IBMT members called the vote “deplorable” and an “unforgivable insult” to the memory of those who gave their lives fighting fascism.

The passed motion states: “Tens of thousands of communists from around the world, motivated by international solidarity and opposition to fascist ideology, volunteered to fight Franco, Hitler and Mussolini in the Spanish Civil War.

“Thousands of them gave their lives. Many more continued the fight against fascism in the second world war, whether in Allied forces or in underground resistance or partisan movements.

“This is an unforgivable insult to their memory and, by equating communism and nazism, seeks to place the liberators of Auschwitz on the same moral footing as the perpetrators of the Holocaust.”

The meeting also voted to send a copy of the motion to the Labour Party, whose MEPs voted in favour of the European Parliament motion.

IBMT secretary Jim Jump, whose father James fought with the International Brigades, told the Star: “It’s an outrage that the European Parliament deems it fit that the perpetrators of Guernica and the Holocaust are being likened to those who fought fascism in Spain and liberated Auschwitz and the death camps.”