Farage: There Won’t Be a European Union in Ten Years’ Time

Brexit leader Nigel Farage has said that the UK has “set the standard” for nations gaining independence from the European Union, predicting that with the current divides on the continent between east and west and north and south, the bloc will not even exist in ten years.

The UK finally left the EU’s institutions, with a deal, on December 31st, 2020, four-and-half years after the public voted 52 to 48 per cent to leave the bloc.

Speaking to LBC’s Iain Dale on Monday, Mr Farage rejected the notion that the UK was as “divided” as it was on June 23rd, 2016, pointing out that the actual proportion of Remainers who fully backed the European Project — “who wanted that flag, wanted that anthem, wanted people like [European Commission President Jean Claude] Juncker telling us what we can and can’t do” — was only “tiny”, and that many who voted to stay a member of the bloc did so out of fear of change.

Indeed, successive votes since the referendum — the European Parliament and the national elections — had demonstrated an increasing share of voters backing parties that pledged to deliver a full Brexit, defeating candidates advocating for a second referendum.

“The truth of it is that a very large number of people who voted Remain can now see that actually it’s more than possible for us to sign up to trade deals with the rest of the world, more than possible with a bit of will to come to, in most areas, a reasonable agreement with the EU itself,” Farage said.

The Brexiteer, who has been fighting in the political arena for 27 years for Britain’s emancipation from the bloc, said that those that may still support membership would dwindle further once they realise the power of independence.

“The point about becoming independent is that democracy becomes vibrant, democracy becomes real. We really will be in charge when we vote in elections of laws that really affect us. I just don’t see that being reversed,” he said.

He added: “The Brexit Wars are over. The bitterness, the division, the agony of four-and-a-half years of much of our establishment doing their best to overturn the democratic will of the people, that is over.”

Even if there were an active campaign to rejoin, there will not be a European Union to rejoin in ten years, Mr Farage predicted.

“Just look at what’s happening in Brussels: you’ve got the Poles and the Hungarians, vetoing the budget. You’ve got a eurozone, which is driving the south into deeper and deeper poverty,” he said, predicting that “at some point, Italy will just have to leave that eurozone”.

“I don’t think they’ll even be a European Union in ten years’ time. I think that we have set the standard.

“I think in a year or two’s time you will see a lot more mainstream opinion across European politics saying, ‘Do you know what? Why don’t we have a Europe of trade, cooperation, and friendship? Why don’t we have a Europe that my parents’ generation thought they were signing up to nearly 50 years ago?'”