Below is the text of the speech given by Geert Wilders in Los Angeles today.
Los Angeles, June 9, 2013
Dear friends, thank you for inviting me to Los Angeles. I always like coming to the United States. There are many things that I admire Americans for. One of them is that they are unashamedly patriotic.
The American Freedom Association has asked me to speak to you about the future of Europe.
Europe is in a terrible state. Bit by bit, European countries are losing their national sovereignty. The economy is in shambles. Islamic immigrants riot and terrorize the many locals. And when people’s throats are slit in the streets, while the murderers shout “Allahu Akbar,” the authorities appease the killers and declare that Islam has nothing to do with it.
Europeans feel that the gap between them en those who rule them is growing. Many no longer feel represented by their politicians. There is a complete disconnect between the people that truly rule Europe and the people that live in it.
The blame lies to a large extent with the European Union and the weak leadership within the European countries which have signed away their national sovereignty. The EU cannot be compared to the United States. Europe is a continent of many different nations with their own identities, traditions and languages. The EU is a supranational organization, but its leaders aim to turn it into a state. To this end they are destroying the wealth, identity and freedoms of the existing nation-states of Europe.
Before I elaborate, let us take a closer look at the terrible mistake that Europe made.
Following the Second World War, Europe’s leaders mistakenly thought that patriotism was the cause of the war.
All over Europe, not just in Germany, but everywhere, they equated the defense of national identity with extremism.
Politicians told the electorate that the nation state was dangerous.
On the rooftops of Europe’s parliaments and official buildings, they flew the EU flag next to the national flag, as if the nation is nothing but a province of a Pan-European empire.
On the number plates of European cars, they put the EU flag instead of the national flag, thereby forcing people to drive around with the symbol of their subjection.
They signed away their national interests for the goal of so-called Europeanization.
Such policies could never have been possible if the ruling elite had not fallen for the ideology of cultural and moral relativism. Patriotism, which is a virtue, came to be seen as a vice.
Today, the citizens of Europe are reaping the bitter harvest of this arrogance, this refusal to stand by the ancient nations of Europe, the mothers of modern democracy, the guardians of our liberty.
- The EU stands for everything that is wrong in Europe.
- It is a gigantic undemocratic transnational monster.
- It issues legislation permeated with cultural relativism.
- It meddles in the everyday lives of millions of people.
- It has opened Europe’s borders to uncontrolled mass immigration, mostly from Islamic countries.
- And it has deprived Europe’s parliaments of a huge amount of their legislative powers.
