Calling 2016 the year of a “global political revolution,” British politician Nigel Farage called on French, German, Dutch voters to follow suit in upcoming elections.
Speaking to an annual conference of U.S. grassroots conservatives outside Washington, D.C., on Friday the former U.K. Independence Party leader linked President Trump’s win and the successful Brexit campaign for Great Britain to leave the European Union as part of a fight against “supra-national global government.”
Then he told the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference that it would be just the start, calling on other European countries to also vote on nationalist lines.
“What happened in 2016 is not the end of this great global revolution, what happened in 2016 is the beginning of a great global revolution,” he said, predicting that the nationalistic impulse would “roll out across the rest of the West.”
He then referenced an upcoming election in France, where nationalist leader Marine Le Pen has recently surged in the polls; in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a tough re-election fight; in the Netherlands, where populist Geert Wilders, who has promised to close all Dutch mosques, is leading in the polls; and in Italy, where elections may be held as early as this year.
“We’ve got some very exciting elections coming up in the Netherlands, in France, in Germany, possibly even in Italy,” he said. “They’re rejecting the idea of being governed by a bunch of unelected old men in Brussels.”
Farage also criticized Merkel, who welcome refugees to Germany in 2015, arguing it was unpopular with voters.
“They’re rejecting the absolute madness and idiocy of what Angela Merkel did 18 months ago when she opened up her doors,” he said.
He also attempted to address criticism that nationalist movements are fueled by racism or xenophobia.
“We’re not against anybody based on religion and ethnicity,” he said. “But we’re for ourselves, we’re for our country, we’re for our safety.”
“We’re for our people,” he says, “and we are winning.”
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