Eurozone crisis hasn't even begun say Farrage

At the European Parliament in Brussels the politics of Europe is normally decided by grey politician voting along party lines. Occasionally a politician will stand out, and one such politician is Nigel Farrage, of UKIP.

UKIP finished second in the recent UK by election in Eastleigh, with 28% of the total vote, pushing the ruling Conservative Party into third place. The government claim the surge in support for UKIP was essentially a protest vote, but others are less sure. What is UKIP’s appeal?

“The things we are talking about are real issues which affect peoples’ everyday lives, the sort of things they talk about around the dinner table or down the pub or wherever it may be. Well its blindingly obvious that if you open your doors next year to Romania and Bulgaria, and if we get a second massive migratory surge form eastern Europe into Britain, that impacts on jobs and it impacts on social housing. What we’re saying is, we are not against people from Bulgaria but surly enough is enough. We’ve absorbed over 4 million people over the last ten years into Britain, isn’t it about time we called a halt to mass immigration. And it’s that message that reached out to ordinary working families in Eastleigh.” said Nigel.

You want a referendum, so does Mr Cameron. What’s the difference?

“Oh, Mr Cameron did this all before, back in 2007. He said if you make me prime minister I’ll give you a cast iron guarantee that there will be a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. Well he is prime minister, and he’s let us down like a cheap pair of braces, and no one will ever believe a word that man speaks ever again.”

And what are the lessons for Europe?

“Well clearly the Eastleigh result is something that is being talked about here, and in doubt I will be violently attacked in the plenary session next week in Strasbourg, for even daring to criticise one of the central beliefs of this structure, namely the total free movement of peoples. But I think the events in Italy are even more fascinating. Not only does Berlusconi get back into politics on an increasingly euro-sceptic agenda, but the comedian, Beppe Grillo, very interesting, he’s really an anarchist, but he’s and anti-euro anarchist, and he got 26% of the vote. So what’s really interesting is that Italy’s just come out of a period of technocracy. Remember that Berlusconi was removed as prime minister, a former Goldman-Sachs European commissioner, Mr Monti, was put in charge of a technocratic government; you have an election and 55% of the people vote in a euro-sceptic manner”

And what’s your worry?

“For the euro zone to hold together countries have to give up political control to the likes of Van Rompuy. But if you hold elections you’re going to get results that you don’t like. So actually, for the Eurozone to survive they are going to have to abolish elections. You cannot have nation state democracy and the euro, and that’s the big message, the big lesson that is coming out of Italy, and I must say over the last few months people have said the Eurozone crisis is over. I don’t think it’s even begun.”

Anna van Densky

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