Dutch politician Geert Wilders is using his popularity and name recognition to support the VoteLeave campaign, which encourages UK citizens to vote for a British exit from the European Union next month — a “Brexit.”
In a conversation with The Sunday Telegraph, Wilders — known for his euro-skepticism and his criticism of Islam — explains that if Brits seize this chance to take back their sovereignty, they could inspire many other EU members to do the same:
Like in the 1940s, once again Britain could help liberate Europe from another totalitarian monster, this time called “Brussels.” Again, we could be saved by the British. If people see that a country can leave, and the lights do not go out, there is not a war, and a country does not go bankrupt, but even flourishes. If Britain proves that this theory can become a reality, it would have an enormous effect.
Although Wilders has consistently been portrayed as an “extremist” and a “racist xenophobe” by the media, the Party for Freedom leader is becoming less controversial. He has not softened his tone — voters are simply siding with him. He now represents a large segment of the Dutch and even the European electorate:
Not so long ago, Mr. Wilders acknowledges, such dreams of a populist revolution would have remained just that — dreams — but as in America, where Donald Trump has caught the establishment flat-footed with his brash appeal to discontented grassroots, Europe’s populists are suddenly ascendant.
Nationalist populism is taking over in Europe as it appears to be doing in the United States with the rise of Donald Trump.
Interestingly enough, in the U.S. that implies the federal government may get more power (I see no reason to believe that Trump would cut the size of the government — quite the opposite), while in Europe it means that Brussels — Europe’s centralized government power — may be dismantled.
The latter development would be positive. Brussels is demanding more power as member states are being forced to accept millions of non-Western immigrants. European voters want to control their own destiny again, just as they did before the totalitarian European Union took over.
The anti-EU forces need a breakthrough moment, and a “Brexit” would be just that. Other countries would undoubtedly follow suit, perhaps led by Wilders’ Netherlands.
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