Leading Belgian MEP Phillipe Lamberts launched a scathing outburst against the seven countries he claims are ruining the EU from the inside. The leader of the Greens in the European Parliament named and shamed the so-called “frugals” – the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland and Denmark – as well as the “pseudo-democratics” – Hungary and Poland. He claimed that their tactics during the European Union recovery fund talks last weekend resembled those from the British Conservative Party before the Brexit referendum.
Mr Lamberts said: “They like to refer to themselves as the frugals but I prefer to call them the misers.
“To them, the EU is simply a money pump, that their countries pay far too much into.
“They have benefited from membership of the EU. They want to keep the cake without paying the fair price.
“Through their discourse and their acts they are reducing the EU into a simple money pit, into a new USSR.
“Day after day they are poisoning their citizens with nationalism, and pitting European citizens against each other.
“We know the British Conservatives did the same and we know where that ended up today.
“We should not turn out back on this. We should stand shoulder to shoulder we make sure we establish a dignified life for all our citizens.”
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