EU won’t survive because of people's will

We are here, well I’ve been told repeatedly, in the home of European democracy. So, surely we could take the opportunity this morning to celebrate the Dutch referendum last week, in which the people said “no” to EU enlargement, “no” to the deal with Ukraine. And no doubt, if it had been Turkey, an even bigger number of people would have said “no” to Turkish accession. So, it was a victory for democracy, but in particular, it was a victory for a little organization called GeenStijl: a group of young bloggers who managed to get together 427,000 signatures. It was a victory as well for direct democracy. And this in the week when we remember Gianroberto Casaleggio, the genius behind the Five Star movement in Italy, who has died. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the new politics. And yet we’ve been told by Mr Junker that if the Ducth voted “no” it would be a disaster, but he hasn’t mentioned it today at all, and indeed your predecessor, Mr van Rompuy, said: “We should just ignore the Dutch and carry on blithely.” So what we are seeing is the big battalions of vested self-interest doing their best to completely ignore the will of the Dutch people. Well, I think things are changing. I don’t believe these institutions could survive 21st century technology. I think the will of the people is changing the politics in a way that makes all of you sitting in this room deeply fearful, and so you should be.

And we, in the UK, enter the final countdown of our referendum, all eyes are on this Turkish deal, and I think what we see is the bosses of the EU bowing and scraping before Mr Erdogan who gleefully walks all over you, tramples over human rights at every level, and for Mr. Jumker to tell us this morning that we are making progress, let’s just examine that: 1.8 million people have come to the EU in the last 18 months, and we sent back 300. It doesn’t sound, sir, like it is going very well to me. The one group that will be pleased, though, are ISIS: they have now managed to put 5000 of their operatives into the European continent, according to the boss of Europol - something that should send a shiver down our collective spines. I have to say that in the end, I think that is what the British referendum will turn on, I think we will vote for Brexit. The reason is that we will vote to put our own safety first. It is going be as it was in the Netherlands last week: a battle of people vs. the politicians. You may have the big money, big businesses, and Goldman Sachs, but we’ve got our armies of bloggers, and in the end the people’s will is going to prevail, this place won’t survive.

Peter Eriksson

I have a question to Mr. Farage, who is sitting behind the British flag. Don’t you think that it is quite embarrassing for many Brits that the speaker who is speaking behind the British flag is celebrating a referendum in which the only winner is Mr Putin, who is now celebrating that Europe is not united behind the cooperation with Ukraine.

Nigel Farage

… But I’m equally not very keen on going to war with Mr Putin, which strikes me as being a very silly idea. What did we do? We encouraged the overthrow of a corrupt, but democratically elected leader in the Ukraine, and we, in effect, poked the Russian bear with a stick, and we are surprised when it reacts. We shouldn’t be. I think that we should all have our own individual Nation-State democracies. And I want a Europe, Mr Eriksson, where we trade together, cooperate together, work together, and are friends and good neighbors with each other. What I don’t want is that flag, an anthem, and all these presidents; I don’t want a political union, I want genuine European friendship.

Katehon’s transcription of Mr. Farage speech in the EU Parliament 13.04.2016