In an impassioned plea before the European Union’s so-called “Parliament,” United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader and popular MEP Nigel Farage compared the EU to the Titanic hitting the infamous iceberg — warning that mass civil unrest, revolution, the re-emergence of National Socialism (Nazism) and economic disaster could all be imminent unless the controversial integration project is abandoned immediately. Europe’s rulers, as usual, largely ignored the speech. But citizens and analysts alike took notice.
Farage, likely the most well-known member of the European Parliament, has become internationally recognized in recent years for his powerful speeches slamming the EU and its controversial policies. Millions of people have seen videos of his talks online. But his latest speech on May 9 — so-called “Europe Day” among EU enthusiasts — was among his starkest warnings about the European scheme thus far. It quickly went viral.
“Like Communism, this has all gone badly wrong, and the EU Titanic has now hit the iceberg. It is a European Union of economic failure, of mass unemployment, of low growth; but worst of all, it’s an EU with the economic prison of the euro,” Farage warned during the three-minute plea. “This now poses huge dangers to the continent. We face the prospect of mass civil unrest, possibly even revolution in some countries that have been driven to total and utter desperation.”
Citing recent elections, Farage noted that the peoples of Europe were growing increasingly angry about the already unpopular EU. And while that could be considered a good sign, however, he also warned that it might be a harbinger of a more troubling trend: The rise of dangerous extremism along the lines of National Socialism (Nazism) that the world fought so hard to destroy once before. Ironically, analysts noted, the European project to abolish national sovereignty was sold to the populace as a way to prevent exactly that sort of problem.
“We’re seeing it country after country…. In Greece what we saw last Sunday was rather reminiscent of the German election of 1932 — we saw the status quo center collapse, and the extremes of right and left rise. You know, this project could even cause the rebirth of National Socialism in Europe,” Farage warned. “We are headed the wrong way. We must break up the euro-zone. We must set those Mediterranean countries free.”
If the EU establishment fails to heed his warning, the consequences will not be pretty, Farage said, citing the tragedies that afflicted the former Yugoslavia as an example of what happens when elites attempt to abolish nation-states. So, instead of continuing down the dangerous road of increasing centralization in Brussels, Farage suggested building a Europe based on trade and cooperation among sovereign nations — a continent without the suffocating and perpetually expanding central EU machine.
Instead of celebrating May 9 as “Europe Day,” Farage proposed celebrating “Victory in Europe Day” on the 8th in honor of National Socialist (Nazi) Germany’s defeat in World War II at the hands of allied forces. “When people stand up and talk about the great success that the EU has been, I’m not sure anybody saying it really believes it themselves anymore,” he said. “What we’re celebrating on the 9th of May is another attempt — through different means — to smash democracy across Europe.” And finally, pointing to the EU’s blue flag, the respect anti-integration leader remarked: “I owe no allegiance to that flag, and nor do most of the people in Europe either.”
While Farage remains an irritating thorn in the side of most of the EU’s legions of functionaries and officials, he has built a dedicated global following over the years for his tireless efforts to dismantle the controversial institution and restore national sovereignty. And in Britain, his anti-EU UKIP scored record electoral victories across the nation. Establishment politicians in the UK and Europe are reportedly starting to get nervous.
The EU, of course, has long been criticized by Europeans as an undemocratic monster that continues to seize more and more power regardless of what citizens say and think. Despite voters’ overwhelming rejection of the EU “Constitution,” for example, the establishment renamed the document and rammed the “Lisbon Treaty” through anyway — ignoring the referendums against the scheme as if they had never happened.
More recently, the controversial continental regime has taken the troubling attitude to frightening new levels, even overthrowing democratically elected national leaders in places like Italy and Greece to replace them with hand-picked members of the pro-EU banking elite. Nations like Switzerland that refuse to submit to Brussels’ dictates, meanwhile, have been targeted for intense bullying and intimidation campaigns aimed at terrorizing citizens into submission on everything from taxes to regulations.
Still, as Farage and countless analysts have been explaining for years, pressure to shut down the whole institution is growing quickly — especially in the wake of the euro crisis. The EU, of course, has been seeking to exploit the turmoil to seize even more power. But if citizens and national governments do eventually regain their voices, the entire project is likely to collapse in a stunning manner.
Watch Farage’s speech here:
