Nigel Farage, a British member of the European Parliament known for his anti-European Union views, hurled insults at the European Council President Herman Van Rompuy at Thursdays session. Farage likened Van Rompuy to a damp rag and low-grade bank clerk who lacked charisma. You have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk. The question that I want to ask is who are you? Ive never heard of you. Nobody in Europe has ever heard of you. I would like to ask you, president, who is voting for you and what mechanism? All I know democracy is not popular with you lot. What mechanism do the peoples of Europe have to remove you? Is this European democracy? Well, I sense though that youre competent and capable and dangerous, and I have no doubt that it's your intention to be the quiet assassin of European democracy and of the European nation states. You appear to have a loathing for the very concept of the existence of nation states - perhaps that's because you come from Belgium, which of course is pretty much a non-country. But since you took over, we've seen Greece reduced to nothing more than a protectorate - Sir, you have no legitimacy in this job, at all, and I can say with confidence, that I can speak on behalf of the majority of the British people in saying: We don't know you, we don't want you.
Herman Van Rompuy
Nigel Farage
