Poland's fledgling far-right to run for EU parliament

(WARSAW) - Poland's nascent nationalist movement RN said Tuesday it would put forward candidates for the first time ever at the 2014 European Parliament elections.

The bloc is made up of dozens of small nationalist, ultra-Catholic and eurosceptic groups that joined forces last year with an eye on the vote in May.

"Once we enter the European Parliament, we will fight alongside other eurosceptic groups against the federalism and European centralism of Brussels," RN leader Robert Winnicki told reporters in Warsaw.

The RN hopes to form a coalition with the eurosceptic UK Independence Party led by Nigel Farage, the anti-immigration French National Front (FN) party led by Marine Le Pen or the far-right Hungarian Jobbik party led by Gabor Vona.

"It's with these parties that we'd like to form an alliance at the European Parliament to change Europe, to put an end to the Lisbon Treaty (which calls for a greater role for parliaments at the EU level) and to fight for an alliance of nations," said Winnicki, who himself will run in the elections.

The RN, which counts between 5,000 and 10,000 members, has never before run for public office.

To date it had only held demonstrations in Warsaw and other cities at last year's Polish independence day on November 11.

In most cases the marches devolved into clashes with anti-fascist demonstrators and the police.

The RN includes former supporters of the nationalist and ultra-Catholic party LPR, which vanished from the Polish political scene after the 2007 elections pushed it out of parliament and ushered in today's ruling centre-right.

The bloc defends a "national identity" founded on Christian values and rules out gay marriage, insisting on traditional unions between man and wife.