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BRITISH MEP NIGEL Farage has compared the EU and its leaders to ‘the mafia’ – and after provoking outrage from his fellow European lawmakers, toned it down to ‘gangsters’.
He made the comments in the European Parliament this morning in relation to the terms and conditions around the UK’s exit from the EU.
You’ve shown yourselves with these demands to be vindictive, to be nasty – all I can say is thank goodness we’re leaving.
“You’re behaving like the mafia, you think we’re a hostage! We’re not, we’re free to go!”
At this point MEPs began protesting at being compared to the mafia. So Farage toned down his language.
I do understand, Mr President, I do understand national sensitivities. I’ll change it to gangsters.
“And that is how we’re being treated – we’re being given a ransom note.”
There was suggestions before that the EU – in giving Spain a veto over the Brexit deal because of their claim to Gibraltar – were trying to antagonise the UK.
British Defence secretary reacted strongly to the veto provision by saying they’d go to war over Gibraltar, while most said that the territory shouldn’t be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations which will be complex enough as it is.
It’s also expected that Britain will have to pay a fine to the EU to leave, which is what Farage seems to have been alluding to above when he talks about a ‘ransom’.
Although the exact figure is unconfirmed, some reports suggest they’d have to pay as much as €50 billion to leave.
Erdoğan
The claims by Farage today are not unlike those made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last month.
In a televised address, Erdoğan compared the EU’s leaders to ‘Nazis’, saying “Europe is swiftly rolling back to the days before World War II”.
This was after the EU’s top court ruled in favour of European companies banning employees from wearing religious or political symbols – including the Islamic headscarf.
“Shame on your European Union acquis!” Erdoğan said, referring to EU law. “Shame on your values. Shame on your law and justice!”
The response came after The Netherlands and Germany blocked Turkish ministers from holding campaign rallies to secure a “yes” vote on expanding Erdoğan’s powers.
With reporting from EuroParlRadio.
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Cant wait for Decembers Budget. More cuts and tax hikes to be made. Then you will see people moaning. I hope the people who voted yes are proud of themselves. Unpatriotic fools.
Well said!
Whereas if the treaty was rejected, a load of money would magically appear, as if from nowhere… Really?
@Irish patriot, I am very proud of the fact that I voted yes. You could be right, it may have been foolish, but at least I use my real name when posting, and don’t use some self-righteous pseudonym.
So you think the next budget wouldn’t have been harsh if t he No vote had won? Newsflash: we are in the crapper, financially, and harsh budgets are going to be a sad feature of Irish life for another few years. The treaty was about imposing rules on our feckless politicians to stop them running up any more stupid deficits. Whether Yes or No, the result of this referendum was never going to magic our debt away.
Donacha you are the worst kind of fool too stupid to understand How goosed you are
@Irish Patriot
Why don’t you aim your anger at the lazy arseholes that didn’t bother to vote? Why are you aiming your anger at the “yes” people? They voted, they voted to the best of their ability and conscious just like you! Don’t be so arrogant and assume that the “no” side is right. To be honest nobody knows and didn’t know really, honestly, how to vote. But at the same time, we our democratic right gave us the chance to vote …. and we did, the lazy arsehole didn’t! Blame them.
Don’t call me an unpatriotic fool, or the other 60% who voted Yes. Morons like you are typical of the no vote fanatics who had nothing better to do than to ‘spread their message’ on the journal comments section. Party is over now – get back in your box instead of wishing a harsh budget on your countrymen and women because the majority voted yes
Buckwheat
Irish Patriot is telling the truth there will be a harsh budget for everyone in this country in December.
how do you get a job at these count centers? where do i apply for the next one? i hear the money is good!
What ever the out come is an embarrassment for for the Government they may have got their yes vote but the poor turn out speaks volumes . The people have spoken in more ways the one…
First time I’ve seen Joe Higgins smile in years!
minister for employment..watching f*****g employment! Should be minister of overseeing our young emigrate.
Caption on the first picture there is wrong. Lucinda Creighton is on the left (visually speaking) and the other person in the picture is Kevin Humphries, Labour TD for Dublin South East.
I’m one of the lazy arseholes that didn’t vote…..I don’t live in Ireland at the moment
6 billion of cuts in the budget while we handed 2.5 billion to bond holders last werk. Brilliant.
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