Farage Channels His Inner Hitler

After Nigel “Thirsty” Farage spent all that time attracting some highly dodgy characters to the UKIP grouping in the European Parliament, and getting closer than was absolutely necessary to Marine le Pen of the French Front National, it was only a matter of time before he went the whole hog and cosied up to the rump of the far right in Germany. And so it has come to pass, in the most revealing fashion.

Squeaky Third Reich finger up the bum time

Not only is Mr Thirsty going to speak at a far-right rally, he’s invoked a Nazi connection into the bargain. As the Guardian has told, “Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage will appear at a rally held by Germany’s far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) inside a renaissance fortress in Berlin … The South East England MEP will appear at the Spandau Citadel in the west of the German capital”. How convenient.

Not far from where Rudolf Hess spent his last years, all alone in Spandau Prison at the insistence of the Russians who had no intention of letting him out alive. So who’s doing the invites? “AfD MEP Beatrix von Storch, who is hosting the event”. Who she? “A granddaughter of Hitler’s finance minister, Lutz von Krosigk, von Storch is a leading member of the anti-immigrant party”. Thus the Hitler connection.

Not only that, Ms von Storch shares one trait with Farage - the inability to keep her North and South shut: “von Storch has been a member of Farage’s group in the European parliament since being expelled from the more mainstream European Conservatives and Reformists Group in April last year, following comments in which she called on European border guards to use firearms to deter illegal immigrants, including women and children. She later described the comments as a ‘tactical mistake’”.

Like wanting to make a hike to Bideford and looking at the Stalingrad map instead, no doubt. But she wanted her Facebook audience to know that Mr Thirsty was keen to attend: “von Storch said that Farage had been so impressed with the AfD’s campaign that he had accepted ‘without hesitation’ her invitation to appear at a campaign rally”.

You'll have to speak up, I'm a bit Mutt and Jeff

What do the rank and file of AfD think? Well, some are not keen, given Farage’s propensity to talk the talk, and then resign and head for the nearest well-paid media appearance, but it seems that “On the AfD’s social media channels a majority of users welcomed the announcement of Farage’s appearance, praising the former leader as a ‘straight-down-the-line’ and ‘fiery’ speaker”. Rather than a gobby, rabble rousing liar.

The Nazi connection, and the location with all its post-war history, would have made any mainstream politician at least stop and think. And one might think that Germany had more than enough of “straight down the line” and “fiery” speakers during the brief tenure of the Third Reich. That Mr Thirsty has gone off to address the German far-right tells you all you need to know about the inspiration for this deeply disloyal politician.

Will he spend too much time in the beer hall? But then again, how will anyone notice?