Nigel Farage was greeted with a huge round of applause when he told a Dutch TV audience this week that people around Europe “feel the same way about the EU as the British do”.
Mr Farage was championing the rise of euroscepticism across the continent, following a series of electoral shocks to Brussels and EU supporters.
The Dutch TV host Robert Jensen stunned the Brexiteer when he told the former Ukip leader that he agreed with him.
Jensen claimed that politicians made up “fake polls” that claim the Dutch are “so happy” in the EU, when in reality “everybody has doubts”.
Mr Farage attacked the country’s prime minister Mark Rutte for being “not much more than Mrs Merkel’s poodle”.
He told the popular talkshow: “Ever since 2008, the financial crash, the Germans have been running Europe.
“Your prime minister is one of the good boys. Whatever the Germans and Brussels say, he goes along with it.
“As a result of that, you haven’t had the breadth of debate on these issues that you deserve.”
Jensen jumped in to argue with Mr Farage, saying: “It is stifled. They bring up these fake polls that we are ‘so happy’ in the EU.
“I can’t find anyone in the north or south, the east or the west, like that! Everyone has their doubts.”
Mr Farage said that the EU has a history of crushing debate about the European project.
He pointed to the referendum in the Netherlands in 2005, when Dutch voters rejected the European constitution for greater integration.
While an overwhelming 62% of voters rebelled against Brussels in the referendum, the vote was later reversed by the Europeans.
A similar event occured two years ago in a referendum on a Ukranian trade deal.
The Brexiteer MEP continued: “I think the Dutch people feel the exact same way about this as the British and the French people do.
“We want a European cooperation. We want to work together, we want to trade together. We are neighbours in Europe
“But to be run from the centre, by people telling us what we can or can’t do, honestly no!”
Last year, Mr Rutte stunned the European status quo when he delivered a speech criticising the language of “ever closer Union” enshrined in the EU treaties.