Farage to MEPs: Europe’s to the right of me

This morning, the European Parliament in Strasbourg has been debating the future of the EU. The “homogeneity” of the EU, often complained about by its critics, wasn’t much on display. The Euro-sceptic attacks from all over Europe on Guy Verhofstadt’s proposal of “more Europe” were loud and persistent.

In his contribution, Nigel Farage talked to MEPs about the strength of anti-Muslim feeling across Europe. He cited the recent poll across 10 European countries that suggests that an average of 55% agreed that all further migration from mainly Muslim countries should be stopped (25% neither agreed nor disagreed and only 20% disagreed).

That, Nigel Farage pointed out, suggested huge chunks of European opinion were to the right of him and Donald Trump. It sounded like the polling may even have surprised him.

A very interesting piece today by Gideon Rachman in the FT. He explains how President Trump and his team see the world through the prism of the clash of civilisations, the “civilised world” that President Trump spoke of in his inaugural address (“civilised world”, as Rachman notes, not the “free world”) versus unspecified non-Judeo-Christian enemies.

Rachman points out how close some writings by European politicians seen as “centre-right” are (Francois Fillon and Pierre Lelouche, for example) to the thoughts of White House aide Steve Bannon and the short-lived National Security Adviser, General Flynn.

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