Toby on Tuesday

'Charlemagne and Charlatans' 

 

Since 1950, the German city of Aachen has awarded an annual prize, the Charlemagne Prize, to those who have contributed most to the process of European integration.   Named after the Emperor Charlemagne, the founder of the Holy Roman Empire who was buried at Aachen, the prize embodies the spirit of a United Europe.   As long ago as 1963 it was awarded to Edward Heath.   In 1999 it was awarded to Tony Blair, in 2000 to Bill Clinton and in 2002 bizarrely to “The Euro”.   More recently, it was awarded in 2014 to Herman Van Rompuy, first President of the European Council, and in 2015 to Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament.   It is probably the most prestigious of all the EU’s awards.   Emperor Charlemagne’s creation, the old Holy Roman Empire, absorbed many territories, above all the old Kingdom of Germany but also the old Kingdoms of Bohemia, Burgundy and Italy.   It was this dual nature of the Empire, uniting the Franks into what would become France and Germany, that made it such a totem for 20th century Eurofederalists.  

 

Where this matters is that it demonstrates that from the start the EU has openly been a political project, the instrument for a centralised, fully integrated and expansionist Continent.   There has never been any doubt of this, despite the great deception played over decades by our own politicians that this is simply a trading organisation.   The truth is that trade has been a secondary consideration and a centralised United States of Europe has always been the objective.   And if we vote “Remain” on 23rd June then we will be voting to be finally absorbed into a tightly-controlled country stretching from the North of Scotland all the way, following Turkish accession, to the borders of Iran, Iraq and Syria.   There should be no doubt that this is the clear objective of our so-called “partners”.   They have always been entirely open about this, while the true deception has rested with our own political masters.

 

Of course Charlemagne was also the name given to the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division, the Charlemagne Division, of the Waffen-SS during World War 2.   Recruited solely from French volunteers and supported by France’s Vichy Government, it claimed to embody the spirit of Charlemagne’s Empire.   Its crest was made up of the Imperial Eagle on the dexter side, representing East Francia (Germany) and the fleur-de-lys on the sinister side, representing West Francia (France).   It fought with ferocious courage on the Russian front and again in 1945 in Berlin, defending the Fuhrerbunker against the advancing Red Army.   Indeed it was among the last regiments to surrender to the Allies in the battle for Berlin, so brilliantly described by the historian Robert Forbes in his “For Europe – The French Volunteers of the Waffen-SS.”  To say these things is not to denigrate those who advocate a “Remain” vote on 23rd June.   It is simply to demonstrate the true motives of our “partners”.   The EU is not a simple trading organisation as our political leaders have always maintained.  In our Referendum, we will finally decide whether or not we wish to be absorbed into this aggressively ambitious project.   And if we do vote to “Remain”, then we can safely expect that David Cameron, like Edward Heath, Tony Blair and “The Euro” before him, to be awarded next year’s Charlemagne Prize!

 

Until next Tuesday!

 

Toby