Saturday, January 11, 2014

Their best friend

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Riga, Latvia, as the EU elites descend to congratulate themselves on Latvia joining the Euro --

Latvia's membership shows that the euro remains attractive and open to those that meet the required conditions. And, by the way, we are, as you know, already working with another Baltic country, Lithuania, so I think that not very far from now we will have all the three Baltic States as members of the euro. And I don't need to signal how important this is, not only from an economic, financial and monetary point of view, but also from a political point of view. 

I'm saying this because in a year when voters go to the polls in the European Parliament elections, we must remind our citizens of the benefits of a united Europe – and also of the dangers of disunity. 

One hundred years ago this year, Europe began a terrible war that tore our continent apart. Twenty-five years ago, the wall dividing our continent was brought down. Ten years ago, we welcomed Latvia and nine other member states into the European Union. And today we are welcoming Latvia as a member of the euro area.

That's a not very subtle dogwhistle, putting the spectre of the USSR and two world wars as the bread on a European Parliament election sandwich. And who could he possibly have in mind when talking about how voters will need to be "reminded" of the dangers of disunity?

But seriously, could the likes of Marine Le Pen and Nigel Farage have better support than the besuited EU aristocracy running around hinting that they are paving the way for Hitler and Stalin?