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Excerpt from Mr Nigel Farage's response in the European Parliament, dated May 22, 2012
English subtitling by Geea2012, © ™
...for the "EFD" Group, Mr Farage. ["Europe for Freedom and Democracy"]
President, we're in the midst of an economic and increasingly humanitarian crisis and yet,
Commission president – Mr Barroso – is not here. Indeed, Herman Van Rompuy is not here either !
Not that it really matters, because they're not prepared to listen to any debate or any argument.
They're intent on pursuing their political dream of a United States of Europe,
they prepared to commit an economic suicide for entire CONTINENT !
And tomorrow night Mr Van Rompuy has called yet another summit
at which he's going to present a strategy "for growth and jobs" !
Elected MEPs, representatives of the people of Europe from left and right
we've heard it ALL BEFORE !
Remember the euro ITSELF was supposed to create growth and jobs,
and yet it is actively destroying both of those things.
The remedy we've been offered is more of the same.
I would suggest that the medicine is killing the patient,
and to increase the dosage is MADNESS !
And don't listen to those who will tell you
that the only alternative is for Greece to stay in the EURO.
Everyone's pushing this. David Cameron, all the other leaders are saying:
"We must keep Greece in the EURO. If she leaves, the sky will fall in." – IT WON'T !
There'll be a few difficult weeks, and then things will settle down.
There'll be a boom in tourism,
investment will start to come back into Greece, innovation will start to come back into Greece,
as people start to make products to beat expensive imports.
Indeed, Greece outside the eurozone may well provide an INSPIRATION
for Spain, for Portugal and many other countries.
We need to recognize that a terrible mistake has been made.
We must resolve to put it right. We've got to give people HOPE,
because out there now is absolute despair.
We all remember Dimitris Christoulas, the 77-year-old former farmacist
who shot himself dead outside the Greek Parliament.
But he is just ONE of a growing humanitarian disaster.
Huge increases in suicides in Italy, in Greece,
particularly from people running small businesses who cannot see a way out of the problem.
Children being left in increasing numbers outside the doors of churches
because they can't afford to feed them.
Our leaders are too callous to listen and care !
YOU can do something about this. YOU can rise up and say – and I know in my conversations with you
that many of you agree with me, that I'm right: WE'VE GOT TO BREAK UP THE EURO !
We've got to restore democracy, we've got to restore human dignity,
we must ignore Messrs Barroso and Van Rompuy, they have been proved to be wrong !
WE must provide people with HOPE !
Dear colleague, a question has been put to you by Mr Papanikolaou.
Mr Farage, are you prepared to take the question ? Mr Papanikolaou, please.
Thank you very much, president.
Well, I listened very carefully to what Mr Farage said,
and he once again reiterated his position, that Greece should leave the EURO zone...
...and... would go back to the drachma – it's our national currency –
and everything goes better, tourism takes off and so on.
Well, Mr Farage, if that were to happen, if Greece were to re-adopt the drachma,
would it be undervalued or not ?
Would it be devalued ? I mean...
...you know, what about the price of fuel, for example, it will go up 3 or 4 times, won't it ?
Please, tell the truth, tell us all the truth !
Drachma would be probably be 50-60% lower
than its current value in the euro – something like that.
Now clearly, I'm not advocating that we move to a new fix peg,
I'm advocating floating currency rates,
because history shows us that every time we try to fix currency pegs, we get it wrong.
The risk, of course, is that the cost of imports would rise,
which is why I said that what it would also lead to is innovation in Greece,
as people started to make products to undercut the price of foreign imports.
But I'll tell what it would give !
It would give Greece a CHANCE, because stuck inside the EURO you are going to be literally DESTROYED !!!
Excerpt from Mr Nigel Farage's response in the European Parliament, dated May 22, 2012
English subtitling by Geea2012, © ™