How Juncker proves the case for Brexit
FOR those who supported Brexit, Jean-Claude Juncker is truly the gift that goes on giving. Indeed, every sentence uttered by the European Commission president underlines the wisdom of voters’ decision to pull out.
Take yesterday, when the cognac-loving former prime minister of Luxembourg (population 583,000) was at his arrogant, blinkered worst as he outlined his vision for expanding the Brussels empire.
With sublime indifference to growing disquiet throughout Europe, he demanded that all EU states should be forced to admit more migrants, while membership of the open- borders Schengen area should become a standard requirement.
Not content with this, he insisted all members should adopt the euro, with a banking union and a single finance minister to oversee European economic policy. There should also be a common EU defence policy, he said, with ever more centralised control from Brussels and a curb on national vetoes.
To cap it all, he called for the whole show to be run by a single powerful president, combining his own role with that of the European Council’s Donald Tusk.
Indeed, every item on his checklist clashed with a growing body of public opinion – in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy and elsewhere – frustrated beyond endurance by the migrant crisis and the economic sclerosis foisted on member states by the Eurocracy.
But then what did unelected, unaccountable Brussels ever care about voters’ wishes?
Skating lightly over years of stagnation, Mr Juncker even seized on long-belated signs of recovery in the EU’s business cycle (from a pitifully low base) to proclaim: ‘The wind is back in Europe’s sails.’
He should try telling that to the lost generation in Italy, Spain and Greece, where 35 to 45 per cent of young people are out of work, their lives laid waste by the straitjacket of the one-size-fits-all euro.
What a contrast to Britain, where yesterday’s figures show the jobless rate tumbled to 4.3 per cent in the year after the Brexit vote.
As for Mr Juncker’s claim that ‘partners all over the world’ are queuing to sign trade deals with the EU, they’d better be prepared to wait. As the UK is discovering, negotiating with Brussels is like wading through glue. Meanwhile, the US ambassador signals full steam ahead for an Anglo-American trade deal.
Half sneering, half threatening, Mr Juncker declared yesterday that we will soon regret Brexit. This paper begs to differ. Though the Mail has never been a cheerleader for Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader surely spoke for Britain when he said after yesterday’s performance: ‘Thank God we’re leaving.’