Members of Britain's Brexit Party turned their backs on the EU anthem on Tuesday as it was played live at the opening of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, in a move that other lawmakers branded disgraceful and pathetic, Reuters reports.
The party launched by prominent Brexiteer Nigel Farage in April won 29 seats in the assembly the following month, more than any other party in Britain, as it rode a wave of public anger over Prime Minister Theresa May's failure to deliver the country's departure from the bloc on schedule.
Seated in the back rows of the assembly, its parliamentarians turned their backs as musicians played the "Ode to Joy" from Ludwig Van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
The symphony was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of London and first performed in Britain in 1825.