Other Politicians Can Only Dream of Having the Influence of Nigel Farage, Says Top German Paper

Nigel Farage has a unique ability to steer British politics that other political parties “could only dream of”, says a German newspaper giving an outsider’s perspective of the Brexit leader’s sudden and apparently effective attack on increasingly woke banking culture.

Be it the European Union, the migrant crisis, or now banking, Nigel Farage has repeatedly been able to make headline news out of topics establishment voices would rather want buried. Revealing last month he was being debanked by the British financial industry — his longstanding bank was cancelling his accounts for nakedly political reasons, and ten other UK banks he’d approached also refused to give him accounts — Mr Farage has led a rapid assault and appears to have got real results.

Now German broadsheet Die Welt gives its own view on the whirlwind month of claims, counter-claims, leaks, hostile briefings, and finally an emerging victory for the seasoned campaigner, reflecting that while Nigel Farage may be officially retired from frontline politics, nevertheless “he continues to dominate the debates. This was recently shown when he forced a powerful bank boss to resign.”

“Other parties can currently only dream of his influence”, Die Welt reflects, citing British political journalist Michael Crick calling him “the best political communicator of our time, even better than Boris Johnson.” Farage bringing down Prime Minister Theresa May and crowning Boris Johnson with his intervention in the 2019 general election are further cited as examples of the scale of influence he exerts on the Conservative Party while remaining firmly outside it.

Compare this influence with that of the minor British political parties, like the Greens or the Liberal Democrats, who despite having a permanent representation in Parliament must either be content to impotently shout from the sidelines or compromise their principles — and disgust their own voters — to get legislation through coalition.

Calling his campaigning style “seditious” and noting his skillful use of viral video, Welt managed all of this without the paper even mentioning Brexit, the biggest political shift in a generation and achieved without ever having been a member of Parliament.

But there is as much unsaid as said about how Farage exercises this power in the United Kingdom in this German perspective. While apparently decrying Farage weaponising video or political developments to push his own views, it makes no reckoning with the fact that this would all come to nothing if he didn’t represent the views of a proven majority of voters.

There is no doubt the fight for Brexit, which he led for many years, was one of the interests of ordinary people against a political establishment that was firm in its views. The same is true of the Channel migrant crisis, a deeply embarrassing issue for the Conservatives given its very existence proves their failure on key election-time promises going back two decades.

By boarding a fishing vessel with a video camera and going to sea and simply seeing what was going on for himself, Farage created a national news story that changed British government policy to try and limit damage to their own reputation.

A new law is emerging in British public life. Be you an anti-Brexit Prime Minister or the chief of a massive and wealthy bank, those who bet against Nigel Farage lose their shirts. While that may be an anathema to some in the UK, Germany appears to observe at great enough a distance to realise it.