Nigel Farage declines weird offer of sword duel as he highlights Ukip's links with Poland
NIGEL Farage has rejected the offer of a sword fight with a Polish ‘prince’ living in west London – instead pointing to Ukip's growing popularity in the eastern European country.
Flamboyant aristocrat Janek Zylinski bizarrely challenged Mr Farage to an 18th century-style duel in the capital's Hyde Park, after claiming he's "had enough" of claimed discrimination against Poles living in Britain.
Mr Zylinski is the son of Polish cavalry officer, Andrzej Zylinski, who led a victorious cavalry charge against Nazi occupiers during the Second World War.
He said he intended to use his father’s sword for his hoped-for encounter with Mr Farage and appears in an online video holding the antique blade.
Mr Zylinski, who lives in Ealing, goes on to offer Mr Farage a “duel of words” in case the Ukip MEP declined the offer because his sword “is a little bit rusty”.
I would like us to meet in Hyde Park one morning with our swords and resolve this matter
“What I have to do is to stand up in defence of my people in this country, in the UK,” Mr Zylinski said in the video.
“Ive had enough of the discrimination against Polish people in this country.
“The most idiotic example I've heard of has been Mr Nigel Farage blaming migrants for traffic jams on the M40. Enough is enough, Mr Farage.
“If you agree, I would like us to meet in Hyde Park one morning with our swords and resolve this matter in the way that an 18th century Polish aristocrat and an English gentleman would traditionally do.
"Are you up for it, Mr Farage?“
However, a spokesman for Mr Farage today appeared to decline to offer, telling Mr Zylinski he should look at the anti-EU party's increasing support in Poland.
The party's 'Friends of Ukip in Poland' Facebook page has received hundreds of likes and the spokesman said the group was “growing by the day”.
He added: “[Mr Zylinski] should speak to…one of his 2.4 million countrymen who viewed Nigel’s video berating former Polish PM Donald Tusk for abandoning Poland on YouTube."
In the exchange in January, Mr Farage blasted Mr Tusk for failing to address the drain of young workers from Poland to other European countries, saying he had "outdated opinion on the subject of Europe".
The Ukip leader's comments, which have since gone viral on video-sharing site YouTube, came moments after the Polish diplomat gave his inaugural speech as president of the European Council.
