London’s Ex-Mayor Compares The European Union To Hitler
By Tyler Durden
If the US presidential election has devolved into a comical soundbite free-for-fall, then the UK has its hands full with Brexit, and how the two opposing camps are approaching the UK’s vote to exit the Eurozone on June 23.
On one hand there are the fearmongers who comprise the “stay” campaign, among which such glowing examples as PM David Cameron who last week warned World War III could break out in case of an affirmative vote, followed shortly after by BOE governor Mark Carney warning of recession risk and a sharp plunge in Sterling, while the IMF’s Christine Lagarde likewise chiming in in defense of the status quo.
On the other hand, those in the pro-Brexit “leave” camp have been riding the recent wave of anti-immigrant sentiment sweeping Europe, and have been pushing to portray the increasingly shaky European Union (whose customs union may or may not survive another refugee onslaught) as the reason for UK economic weakness.
This culminated today when ex-London mayor Boris Johnson compared the European Union’s aims to those of Adolf Hitler, arguing that the 28-nation bloc is creating a superstate that mirrors the attempt of the Nazi leader to dominate the European continent.
As AP reports, Johnson, the most prominent political figure arguing that Britain should leave the EU, says the past 2,000 years of European history have been dominated by doomed attempts to unify the continent and recreate the Romans’ golden age.
“The whole thing began with the Roman Empire. I wrote a book on this subject, and I think it’s probably right. The truth is that the history of the last couple of thousand years has been broadly repeated attempts by various people or institutions – in a Freudian way – to rediscover the lost childhood of Europe, this golden age of peace and prosperity under the Romans, by trying to unify it. Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically.”
He added that “fundamentally, what is lacking is the eternal problem, which is that there is no underlying loyalty to the idea of Europe. There is no single authority that anybody respects or understands. That is causing this massive democratic void.”
While Johnson is correct that Europe desperately needs a loyalty and patriotism ethos, one which is impossible in a union where the political oligarchy remains a group of unelected Brussels bureaucrats even as nationalist tensions have been rising dramatically in the EU’s member states especially over the past year, it was unclear if the Hitler comparison would cross the chasm to convert any of the substantial number of undecided voters, or merely be lost within the two camps’ respective echo chambers.
To be sure, Johnson’s remarks immediately elicited outrage on the part of those campaigning to remain in the EU ahead of a June 23 vote in Britain on whether to stay or leave. The “stay” camp described Johnson’s comments as a desperate effort take the focus off the economic impact such …read more
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