A former aide to Margaret Thatcher has suggested Brussels has undergone a sad decline, adding it has become a symbol of Europe’s slump.
Speaking to GB News contributor Will Kingston for the latest episode of Fire At Will, Senior Director at the Heritage Foundation Nile Gardiner recalled visiting Brussels and finding it “transformed beyond recognition”.
“I was in Brussels a few months ago, and I have to say the city is unrecognisable today,” he stated. “And it’s an example of the capital city of a country that has completely lost its sense of identity.”
Mr Gardiner went further, questioning Belgium’s very purpose as a nation. “What does Belgium even stand for today?” he asked, describing the situation as a “nightmarish vision for Europe.”
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Mr Gardiner drew a striking parallel between two groups he sees as jointly responsible for Europe’s deterioration.
He argued that the Belgian capital now resembles a city under foreign control, dominated by both Islamist communities and the EU’s administrative class.
“Brussels really looks like a foreign occupied city, increasingly occupied by Islamists, but also occupied by EU bureaucrats, frankly,” he said.
The former Margaret Thatcher aide contended that these two forces are more aligned than people might expect.
“The interesting thing is that the Islamists and the EU bureaucrats actually share a lot of the same outlook for the future of Europe, actually,” he told GB News.
In his assessment, Brussels encapsulates the continent’s broader crisis. “I think Brussels represents everything that’s wrong with Europe today,” he declared.
Mr Gardiner also sounded the alarm over what he described as the erosion of fundamental liberties across the continent, calling the crackdown on expression throughout the EU both “nefarious” and “incredibly dangerous.”
He warned that Britain is not immune to this trend. “And we’re also seeing that in Britain as well with under the Labour Government,” he said.
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By contrast, Mr Gardiner held up America as the world’s foremost defender of liberty.
“The United States is standing up to all of this. Actually, the US is the beacon of free speech and freedom in the world,” he declared.
Washington, he argued, is actively confronting the Brussels establishment. “The US is definitely pushing back and fighting back against the EU elites,” he told GB News.
Mr Gardiner framed the threat in civilisational terms, emphasising that Europe has been at the heart of Western civilisation for millennia.
“If we lose Europe, this is a catastrophe for the future of the free world,” he warned.
He accused EU bureaucrats of acting as “accomplices” to Islamist ambitions, arguing that both groups reject the idea that Western civilisation is a positive force. The hostility towards America found among EU elites, he claimed, mirrors that of Islamist fundamentalists.
“The United States is the enemy, actually, and they share this common outlook,” he said. “Both the Islamists and the EU bureaucrats, the elites are intent on the destruction of Western civilisation, and they share that common goal.”
Mr Gardiner added that Washington is also cautioning Europe about the perils of mass migration and what he termed the growing Islamification of the continent.
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