‘I spent half my life in the Soviet Bloc’: Polish Donald Tusk slams Jeremy Hunt’s ‘insulting’ comparison of the EU and the Soviet Union
- Foreign Secretary has been condemned for comparing EU to the Soviet Union
- Polish Tusk is president of the European Council and grew up under Soviet rule
- He condemned Hunt for an ‘unwise and insulting’ comparison at Tory conference
Donald Tusk slammed Jeremy Hunt’s comparison of the EU and the Soviet Union today, warning the Foreign Secretary he ‘spent half my life in the Soviet bloc’.
Mr Tusk, 61, is Polish and was among the first politicians to take part in democratic elections in Poland after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc.
Mr Hunt has been widely condemned after his Tory conference speech made a clumsy comparison between a tough EU negotiating position on Brexit and Soviet tactics.
Donald Tusk (left in Brussels today with Irish PM Leo Varadkar) slammed Jeremy Hunt’s comparison of the EU and the Soviet Union today, warning the Foreign Secretary he ‘spent half my life in the Soviet bloc’
Jeremy Hunt (pictured right with Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab at Tory conference) has been widely condemned after his Tory conference speech made a clumsy comparison between a tough EU negotiating position on Brexit and Soviet tactics
The EU chief has been embroiled in a row with Theresa May about whether the EU is respecting Britain in the Brexit.
The new spat risks chilling relations even further at a critical phase of the talks.
Mr Tusk said: ‘In respecting our partners, we expect the same in return. Comparing the European Union to the Soviet Union is as unwise as it is insulting.
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‘The Soviet Union was about prisons and gulags, borders and walls, violence against citizens and neighbours. The European Union is about freedom and human rights, prosperity and peace, life without fear; it is about democracy and pluralism, a continent without internal borders and walls.
Mr Tusk, 61, is Polish and was among the first politicians to take part in democratic elections in Poland after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. He is pictured during elections in 2001
‘As the president of the European Council, and someone who spent half of my life in the Societ bloc, I know what I am talking about.’
Mr Tusk said the ‘Soviet spirit is still alive’ in parts of the world, pointing the finger at Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin.
He blasted: ‘You will know best where to find this spirit – not in Brussels.
‘And I am sure you will also remember who was the first to declare full solidarity with the UK at that critical moment.’
The Foreign Secretary has been widely criticised for the jibe.
In his conference speech on Sunday, Mr Hunt: ‘What happened to the confidence and ideals of the European dream?
‘The EU was set up to protect freedom. It was the Soviet Union that stopped people leaving.’
As the row escalated earlier this week, the EU Commission’s chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas said: ‘I would say respectfully that we would all benefit, in particular foreign affairs ministers, from opening a history book from time to time.
‘I do not have a book to recommend, but I think there is a lot of literature covering this dark period of history.’
European Parliament chief negotiator Guy Verhofstadt said: ‘Offensive and outrageous comments by Mr Hunt, especially to those millions of Europeans that lived under Soviet occupation.
‘Churchill and Thatcher, these great defenders of European freedom and democracy must be turning in their graves.’
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