Moment Nigel Farage 'became enemy' of EU project exposed
NIGEL FARAGE, who has campaigned for Brexit for years, once revealed he was not as overtly anti-EU as he is today when he first became an MEP - but that the bloc itself pushed him that way after its staggering rejection of democracy.
Nigel Farage reveals what he’ll miss about being an MEP
The Brexit Party leader must be very excited now that the UK’s exit from the EU is looming. Despite claiming that Boris Johnson’s deal was not a real Brexit in the run-up to the general election, Mr Farage is now planning to hold celebrations in Parliament Square on January 31. He recently claimed that at one point during his 27 years of pushing for this, he thought he would become the “Patron Saint of Lost Causes”.
However, Mr Farage revealed on his LBC show in 2017 that he was not always as entirely anti-EU.
When he was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999, he felt like the UK was “a square peg in a round hole”.
He said: “We had a different legal system, we had a different pattern of alliances around the world and we simply did not fit within this political union.
“But I thought, if the rest of them south of Calais want it, good for them, they can have it.
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“Let me tell you what changed my mind.”
In the early Noughties, the EU produced a “blueprint” for a constitution, which Mr Farage claimed was “the first genuine admission that what they were building wasn’t a free trade zone, it was a state”.
The aim was to replace all the existing EU treaties with a single text, give legal force the charter of Fundamental Rights and expand Qualified Majority Voting to areas that has previously required unanimity among members.
All this meant handing over more powers and sovereignty from individual nations to the EU and would also change the nature of the relationship between countries.
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was signed in 2004 by representatives of the 25 member states.
It was later ratified by 18 member states, which included referendums supporting it in Spain and Luxembourg.
However, the French and Dutch voted against it in May and June 2005, bringing the ratification process to an end.
Mr Farage believes that “many other people, had they had the chance, would have rejected it”.
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For example, in the UK, Tony Blair himself promised a referendum on the constitution, which may have been lost had it been held.
The former Ukip leader said: “And what did the EU do? Did they learn their lesson?
“Did they say ‘Oh well obviously people didn’t want a state with a flag, an anthem and an army.’
“Did they row back? No, they rebranded it as the Lisbon Treaty. They forced it through without giving the French and Dutch another option.”
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The EU regrouped and came back with something not vastly different to the Constitution Treaty – the Lisbon Treaty.
While the Lisbon Treaty contained many of the changes that were in the original plan, they were formulated as amendments to the existing treaties instead of scrapping all previous treaties in lieu of a single text.
However, this time, Ireland – who had not got around to voting previously – rejected the treaty in a referendum in June 2008.
But the Irish electorate were forced to vote again in a second referendum, which reversed their original decision in October 2009.
Reflecting on this, Mr Farage told his listeners: “From that moment, I have been an enemy of the entire project.
“I think it is not only undemocratic, I actually think it is dangerous.
“I think if you suppress people’s ability through the ballot box to make their own decisions, to be in charge of their futures, you will lead directly to political extremism and violence.”
He added: “Let’s make Brexit a success. And let’s get the whole of Europe to leave the European Union and let’s have a better European future.”