Former London mayor bashed for comparing EU to Hitler

Former London mayor Boris Johnson is drawing furious brickbats for his claim that the European Union is behaving like German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler by trying to create a superstate.

Johnson is one of the leading figures campaigning for Britain to leave the EU in a closely-fought referendum being held on June 23.

Johnson said the last two thousand years of European history had featured repeated efforts to bring the continent together under a single government, emulating the Roman empire.

“Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods,” Johnson told The Sunday Telegraph.

Johnson’s comments were attacked by opposition politicians and in Europe, while “EU to Hitler” was trending in London on Twitter.

Hilary Benn, foreign affairs spokesman for the main opposition Labour party and a supporter of EU membership, calls the comparison “offensive.”

Another leading pro-EU Labour figure, Yvette Cooper, says Johnson is playing a “nasty, nasty game.”

“The more he flails around with this kind of hysterical claim, the more he exposes his shameful lack of judgment, his willingness to play the most divisive cynical politics, and the emptiness of his arguments,” she says.

What is happening in the cradle of common sense and civilization? This is an outrageous comparison by @BorisJohnson. https://t.co/npiGpR5KGD

— Alexander Stubb (@alexstubb) May 15, 2016

— AFP