Not tonight, Jean-claude: Europe has lost its libido, says Juncker

EUROPEANS have lost their “collective libido” for each other, Jean-claude Juncker has said before attacking the weakness of British politics in the face of Brexit.

The president of the European Commission blamed the rise of nationalist, populist parties across the EU on national governments rather than Brussels and denied that Brexit heralded the end of the bloc in an interview with Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper.

“We don’t love each other. We have lost our collective libido,” Mr Juncker said, “Five or six years after the Second World War, there was one. Yet these days, it should be much easier for Europeans to fall in love with each other than it was in 1952.”

Asked if Brexit was the beginning of the end for the EU, he replied: “No Brexit is a special case. If you pepper a nation for 40 years with the message that it doesn’t actually belong in the EU, then the decision to leave is the logical outcome. The bride was systematically reviled and then rejected.” Mr Juncker added that Brussels’ approval ratings across the EU were at 62 per cent, their highest for 25 years.

“[This] is largely to do with Brexit. That was a continental wake-up call. It has become clear to EU citizens that they cannot take the EU for granted and that leaving it could have disastrous consequences,” he said.

‘If you pepper a nation for 40 years with the message it doesn’t belong in the EU, the decision to leave is logical’

Mr Juncker was speaking ahead of European elections on May 23, which are expected to result in a surge in support for far-right and Eurosceptic parties, but insisted that this was not the EU’S fault.

“The commission cannot compensate for the weaknesses of the national governments and democracies in Europe,” he said. “Look at the United Kingdom. The fact that the Government and the Opposition only started to talk to each other three years after the Brexit referendum is hardly a sign of strength for the British democracy.”

The Conservatives and Labour have begun talks to find a compromise to break the Brexit deadlock in the House of Commons.

Mr Juncker, who is coming to the end of his five-year term as president of the commission, called on pro-european parties to “stick together” to head off the threat of nationalist parties banding into alliances.

“The Right-wing populists do not find it difficult to condemn the EU,” he said. “But since they spring from national movements, it goes against their nature to fight for something together at European level. An alliance would quickly fragment.”

Mr Juncker also defended the Brussels bureaucracy, insisting he was responsible for ending EU meddling.

“I believe that we have done an awful lot to get closer to the people,” he said. “The most important thing was to become bigger on the big things and to exercise modesty in the small things.

“I have ensured that the Commission no longer gets involved in every tiny detail of citizens’ lives.”