It was only last week that EU leader Donald Tusk caused outrage across the Channel with an unusual outburst on the Brexit negotiations, when he said that that those who had sought Brexit without a plan deserved a ‘special place in hell.’ Now it appears that other EU leaders are falling over themselves to make even more outrageous statements.
Today it was the turn of Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator to take a swipe at British parliamentarians. In a press conference in Strasbourg, the MEP referenced an article written by Politico’s Tom McTague, which compared a number of Britain’s Brexiteers to the leaders of the French revolution. Verhofstadt continued with the comparison, noting that Gove was compared to Brissot, Boris Johnson to Danton and Jacob Rees-Mogg to Robespierre, but went on to warn, rather ominously, that:
‘But we should not forget that the efforts of these men were not appreciated by the common man they claimed to represent because they all ended up on the guillotine, so that’s important to remind.’
“They all ended on the guillotine.”@guyverhofstadt says those comparing hard Brexiteers to the leaders of the French Revolution “should not forget that the efforts of these men were not appreciated by the common man". pic.twitter.com/qpkJLsmq5V
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) February 12, 2019
If we’re taking lessons from the French revolution, it seems to Mr S as if both liberté, égalité, and fraternité are in rather short supply in the EU parliament…
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