The Weekly Forum - 3 July

Frans Timmermans, the former European Commissioner and veteran Dutch politician, may no longer look like Father Christmas (he has lost a lot of weight) but he still believes in fairy tales. In a recent exchange with Thierry Baudet in the Second Chamber of the Netherlands Parliament, he repeatedly claimed that Europe and the West embody law and stability, while Russia deploys the politics of force and subversion. This conviction is so deeply held that no facts can even dent it. The numerous  wars of aggression waged by NATO and NATO states in the last quarter of a century do not count, for him, as acts of de-stabilisation; the US bombing of the European owned Nord Stream pipelines in 2022 does not, for him, threaten European prosperity. The events in Ukraine from 2014 onwards are all Russia’s fault while Europe and America watched from the sidelines. The reason why such fairy tales are believed with such intensity is that they are comforting. Unfortunately, comforting illusions cease to be so when they lead Europe, as now, into war – a war from which there will never be a way out if we listen to people like Timmermans who remain trapped in ideology, unable to confront the world as it really is.

Watch Thierry’s debate with Timmermans here

FVD believes that the EU, and other international institutions, are not only not the solution but also the very core of the problem. Just as ex-Royal Navy commodore Steven Jermy says of NATO that it exists to confront the threats created by its own existence, so FVD’s MP Gideon van Meijeren argued in Parliament recently that the war, uncontrolled immigration and economic malaise from which Europe suffers is not something the EU can solve but which it itself produces. This is because, being detached from popular sovereignty – and indeed regarding popular sovereignty with contempt – the EU is not based on interest but instead on ideology. Only FVD tackles problems that are their very root.

Watch Gideon’s speech here

So the question is, can any problems be solved while remaining in the EU?  FVD has often taken Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party to task for having abandoned Nexit in its last election manifesto. Gideon van Meijeren questioned a PVV minister about this and she was clearly embarrassed at what appears to be opportunism: Nexit was ditched so that the PVV could enter the government. The PVV governed for over a year but was unable to control the very immigration against which it has campaigned for a quarter of a century. Oscar Wilde said that the advantage of having principles is that you can sacrifice them in the name of expediency. But the PVV’s sorry record shows that you do not win political battles by capitulating even before you have fought them.

Watch Gideon tackle the PVV here

The formidable Kit Klarenberg was our main guest on The Forum this week, talking about his special subject – the nefarious role played by the British secret services in their mission to maintain American hegemony. He claims that their determination is to create chaos in order to maintain American hegemony which, in turn, gives Britain a role in the world - as lapdog. 

Watch The Forum here