The leading Belgian MEP, who is calling for his own bloc-wide reforms, claimed Matteo Salvini successfully creating a eurosceptic supergroup would be a “kiss of death” for Brussels. But Mr Verhofstadt also insisted populists don’t pose the only threat to the EU, which also faces challenges from the Chinese, Russian and US “empires”. He wants to recreate the “European dream” to help pro-Brussels politicians win the support of voters after the European elections, which Britain in Britain on Thursday.
On the creation of a eurosceptic alliance, Mr Verhofstadt told CNN: “Reform? I don’t call that reform.
“I call that the kiss of death, instead of beating it from the outside it will die inside.”
Mr Salvini is hoping to create a eurosceptic supergroup in order to win the top jobs for anti-Brussels politicians.
The Italian deputy prime minister has recruited French eurosceptic Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, Alternative for Germany, the Finns Party, the Danish People’s Party and Austria’s Freedom Party to form the largest eurosceptic group in the new Parliament.
Mr Verhofstadt said European politicians should resist regaining their country’s sovereignty and hand more powers to Brussels.
The 66-year-old former Belgian prime minister said: “The word is developing into one not of nation states, but of empires. China is an empire. India is an empire. The US is an empire. We need to create a European Union that is capable of defending our interests.
“It’s Putin, it’s the Chinese leadership, it’s Trump who are going to decide on our way of life, on our standards.
“Some nationalists say ‘yes, we are against globalisation’, but what they are doing is worse.
“What is missing the pro-European voice is vision and passion. We cannot convince young people to be pro-European with a bureaucratic and technocratic European Union as it works today.”
And as part of his pro-European reforms, Mr Verhofstadt wants Britain to finally leave the bloc.
The European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator doesn’t want to spend the next five years “fighting again over Brexit” instead of “talking about renewal and reform”.
In an attack on Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn’s failed cross-party talks, Mr Verhofstadt said: “Normally, when a country puts an existential question on the table, a cross-party platform would be created to say what is now, based on the decision of the people, the best way forward.
“For two years, Brexit has been used as a bullet in a weapon for both sides. That is our feeling. The national interest was never involved – or even trying to find out where the national interest is.”
Mr Verhofstadt is confident he and his pro-EU army will overcome a brutal battle with populists to win control of the bloc.
He concluded: “When there is a pro-European candidate against an anti-European candidate, the pro-European wins.
“That was the case with Macron against Le Pen. That was the case in Austria. That was the case in the Netherlands.
“When there is a one-to-one fight about what the people want – Europe, or going out of Europe – Europe wins.”