Hi All,
"Communist" tends to mean very different things in different countries, especially when principle meets practice.
Nobody is saying that he is bad guy because of this. Baroso is e.g. also (former) communist as far as I know. Its just information, which might be important in some context, nothing more, nothing less (perhaps might also sound differently in some EU countries).
I'm approaching him the same way I approach all MEPs: We'll have a polite discussion about what we can do together.
sure.
The Swedish People's Party is a liberal party. While their members have quite a lot of differing opinions regarding economy, the party is viewed slightly right-winged in the Finnish political scene. The unifying factor is the Swedish speaking minority together with the liberal approach to the questions on values.
In the EP, he's with the ALDE group (Liberals & Democrats). Not exactly a bunch of Stalinist hardliners.
not every communist supporter has to be immediately Stalinist, but that is different discussion :)
Kind Regards, Martin