Michel Barnier is complaining – warning perhaps – that every European Union country now has a Nigel Farage. What he means is someone with the temerity to question the wisdom of the European Union project – and to do so in a manner that significant sections of the population agree with.
The way Barnier puts this it’s obvious that he blames Farage and his like. How very dare they?
There is now a Nigel Farage in “every country” in the EU, the bloc’s chief Brexit negotiator has warned his colleagues.
Michel Barnier said “those who want to demolish Europe” had gained ground across the continent and needed to be defeated in the coming EU elections.
Well, quite, who wouldn’t want to defeat those who threaten his pension?
The European Union’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has called on pro-EU forces to defend the fragile union from populism, saying there is now “a Farage in every country”.
In a speech at the conference of the powerful centre-right European People’s party (EPP), Barnier did not go into details of the deadlocked Brexit negotiations, but warned the EU project was “under threat”.
We can all always hope that the European project is under threat, even that it succumbs to such.
But think through this for a moment. We’ve the same thing happening in 28 countries. That’s most unlikely to be a series of 28 independent events. Much, much, more likely is that there’s the one event and 28 local reactions to it. That is, the rise of 28 populists, Farages, is the fault of the European Union itself. You know, Marx’s action and reaction?
That is, it’s the fault of you and your mates M. Barnier. It’s your own fault that significant portions of the European population aren’t into the European Project.
Yes but they need bogeymen too. The question is do they use the existential threat to push through the agenda they already envisaged or do they ameliorate the threat through institutional and democratic reform. I’d bet on the former myself, and it doesn’t make the situation better it simultaneously raises the stakes and makes the situation more precarious.
Thanks in large part to the real Farage (pbuh), the UK will soon be free of all this nonsense and we will be able to observe the collapse of the EU from a (relatively) safe distance.
Thanks in large part to the real Farage (pbuh), the UK will soon be free of all this nonsense and we will be able to observe the collapse of the EU from a (relatively) safe distance.
Yes but they need bogeymen too. The question is do they use the existential threat to push through the agenda they already envisaged or do they ameliorate the threat through institutional and democratic reform. I’d bet on the former myself, and it doesn’t make the situation better it simultaneously raises the stakes and makes the situation more precarious.