Oscar winning actress and revolutionary Marxist Vanessa Redgrave has said German Chancellor Angela Merkel has something “very, very special” in her, being in her view the only world leader who grasps the gravity of the European migrant crisis.
Although Chancellor Merkel faces growing opposition to her open-door migrant policy in her own party, 78-year-old Vanessa Redgrave sees it differently. The star of such Hollywood blockbusters as ‘Deep Impact’ and ‘Mission:Impossible’ said:
“I give a big bravo to Angela Merkel. She has tried to do the right thing. I don’t know if they are trying to get rid of her behind the scenes, but I applaud her.
“There is this thing in that woman that is very, very special.”
In contrast to Mrs. Merkel’s decency, Ms. Redgrave dismissed Britain’s Theresa May as “a Dracula of a home secretary” and said Britain is keeping the crisis at arm’s length by containing it in the ‘Jungle’ camp near Calais.
“It’s horrific,” she said. “Of course the British realise they are putting this problem on to another country, and people are angry. But the media poisons the atmosphere.”
Chancellor Merkel and Mrs. May should not take much heed of her comments as Ms. Redgrave’s political wisdom is well-known. A Daily Mail review of a biography about her stated:
“There is the Shakespearean actress, international movie star and torchbearer of a glittering theatrical dynasty.
“And then there is Comrade Vanessa, the humourless political fanatic dedicated to the overthrow of just about everything and everyone.
“She has twice stood for Parliament as a candidate for the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP), on a platform that included such fabulously intelligent ideas as abolishing the police force and replacing it with a workers’ militia.
“If you had to write a fictional parody of a far-Left extremist, you wouldn’t dare base it on the life and opinions of Vanessa Redgrave because no one would find it credible.”
As well as Mrs. Merkel another political leader won Ms. Redgrave’s admiration. The thuggish WRP leader, Gerry Healy, ran the Trotskyist party she joined after her brother Corin as an oppressive cult, eventually to be thrown out after 26 female members accused him of sexual assault.
Calling her political judgement into question, rather than side with the accusers, the actress denounced them as liars and has never repudiated him or the WRP which The Observer once noted “was said to be financed by the Redgraves, Colonel Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein.”
Vanessa Redgrave’s seal of approval should not be regarded as a highly-prized asset.
Additional reporting by AFP.