Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chosen representative in Brexit negotiations, has labelled Donald Trump a white supremacist and the conservative governments of Poland and Hungary “alt-right” in remarks following the annual State of the European Union address.
The leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) group and a former prime minister of Belgium made the remarks following Jean-Claude Juncker’s annual State of the European Union address as president of the European Commission.
Juncker called for the creation of a new EU super-president, a pan-European economy minister under the control of that super-president, and more military integration at the EU level — amongst several other ambitious expansionist policies.
Verhofstadt welcomed Juncker’s proposals, adding his own for a European FBI and a “real government for the Eurozone” to the wish list.
Verhofstadt, described as the “high priest” of European federalism by Brexit campaign leader Nigel Farage, also described “lifting democracy to the European level” — by which he appeared to mean lifting collective decision-making to the level of the European Union, turning the bloc into a true ‘United States of Europe’.
The Belgian said this was necessary because the EU is “more than the sum of 27 national democracies”, and “European democracy” was needed to “defend our values and principles outside the union [and] also inside the union”.
In particular, he said change was needed to “withstand alt-right governments like we see today also inside [the EU] in Poland and in Hungary, who think the fact that Trump with his white supremacy is the example, or Putin and [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán, who jail opponents is [sic] the example”.
The governments of Poland and Hungary describe themselves as conservative, not “alt-right”, and President Trump, too, has condemned white supremacy — but Verhofstadt did not take time to substantiate his allegations.
He said his it was necessary to “create this European democracy with a transnational responsibility because we need, as Emmanuel Macron has said … to be the counterweight of all these developments, and [to] autocratic leaders worldwide”.
Following the victory of globalist politicians like Macron in some recent elections, “the wind is now blowing in the right direction” again, the MEP said.
Nigel Farage, however, said the parliament’s Brexit representative was delusional.
“You’re deluding yourself, Mr. Verhofstadt, if you think the populist wave, as you define it, is over. If these plans of Mr. Juncker’s come to fruition, far from the populist wave being over, I doubt it’s even begun.”