Nigel Farage: reading about the history of finland, I have learned that the finnish people struggled for many centuries in order to win your freedom and independence, first from sweden, then russia. in the 20th century you had to fight against both the soviet union and then nazi germany. your forebears worked and fought long and hard to be able to democratically determine their own future. your declaration of independence from russia in 1917 and consequent formation of finland as a nation state were crucial events in your progress towards democracy.
democracy of course cannot exist without the consent of a demos (a people with a shared language, history or culture). a demos necessitates at bare minimum a shared consciousness - a sense of we, a group with an identity and sense of belonging together. the people of finland certainly have that. one important litmus test for a demos, is that the people of this demos share a sense of solidarity so that they were willing to help pay taxes and fund other members of the same demos of a different area with lack of financial means. ask yourself; are the taxpayers of finland willing to fund the payment of civil servants in athens, the wages of social workers in sicily and the construction of motorways in latvia?
are the citizens of finland happy that through the institutions of the eu, commissioners from bucharest, budapest and bratislava are able to dicate the laws that are enacted through the eu for the people of finland? I think not.
membership of the eu means that laws can be made in brussels by people you cannot elect or get rid of and are imposed upon you against your will. if finland is like the other countries in europe, it means that a high percentage of the laws which pas through your national parliament each year originate not in helsinki, but in brussels.
however, I am here tonight to warn you of the danger that the european union poses to democracy in finland. your democratic will as a sovereign people can be overturned and ignored time and time again because the eu has a different agenda.
