Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has called Brexit a “victory for grassroots campaigning” and British democracy, adding that he hoped other European nations would take Britain’s lead and leave the undemocratic EU.
The European Parliament, sitting in Brussels, is set to vote on the Brexit deal on Wednesday afternoon, with the 750-strong chamber expected to back it.
Speaking at a press conference in the EU’s capital, the Member of European Parliament for the South East, Nigel Farage, who will be speaking in the parliament for the last time today, said that the UK leaving the EU is a reason for celebration.
“What we’re celebrating is the fact that the entire UK establishment — all the big businesses, trade unions, and political parties, and even as early as ten years ago every single member of Westminster’s parliament — they all supported continued EU membership. This is a victory for grassroots campaigning.
“Whatever my criticisms may be of the political systems in the United Kingdom and its need for urgent reform, in the end, what it shows is it still actually works. I’m going to be celebrating the fact that democracy and the will of the people have triumphed at 11 pm this Friday,” Mr Farage said, alluding to the Leave Means Leave street party on Brexit Day in Parliament Square.
Mr Farage recalled the EU rebranding its constitution the Lisbon Treaty in 2005 — so Brussels could circumvent the right of European countries to reject the document through referendums and “bulldoze” ahead with turning the bloc into a “global superpower” — as a turning point in his relationship with the European Union.
He said: “Ever since 2005, I have thought, ‘These set of institutions are not just undemocratic, they are fundamentally undemocratic.’ I have been an outright opponent of the European Project since 2005. My goal has been, since then, to get Europe to leave the European Union.”
He said that his hope was that Brexit would be a catalyst for other European countries to take action on their own futures within the bloc.
Castigating Brussels’ bureaucrats, Mr Farage said: “They claim that this is Europe… they claim they own it. I don’t feel this is Europe at all. Europe is made up of very different, very diverse member-states.
“I think that the effect of Brexit is that a genuine debate over the course of the next few years will start to happen, wherein other countries will start to ask themselves: ‘What kind of Europe do we want? Do we want a Europe run by a Europe run by the European Commission, or do we want a Europe run by a cooperation of nation-states?’”