WATCH: Donald Tusk issues brutal slapdown to Jeremy Hunt over EU-Soviet Union comparison
3 min read
EU chief Donald Tusk today hit out at Jeremy Hunt's "insulting" comparison of the European Union and the Soviet Union.
The Polish-born European Council president said the USSR was “about prisons and gulags” while the EU stood for “prosperity and peace” - and noted that he spent half his life suffering under the Soviet regime.
The comments are a blow to the Government at a time when strong diplomatic links with the EU around the Brexit negotiations could not be more vital.
Foreign Secretary Mr Hunt has already suffered a fierce backlash from EU states for his comments to the Tory party conference in Birmingham last Sunday, in which he accused Brussels of trying to "punish" Britain for quitting.
He said: “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.”
But in a seething response today, 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.
“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 or walls.
He added: “As the president of the European Council and someone who spent half of my life in the Soviet Bloc, I know what I'm talking about.
“The Soviet spirit is still alive, as demonstrated by the attack in Salisbury.”
Representatives of Latvia and Germany joined two former Foreign Office diplomats in condemning Mr Hunt over his remarks.
He was forced to issue a statement of clarification just a day later, insisting: “I wasn’t saying that the EU is like the Soviet Union.”
He added: “What I was saying is that the EU was set up to counter the Soviet Union but they’ve got to be very careful... if they really think that the only outcome that’s acceptable from these talks is to punish Britain from wanting to leave the club, then that’s not consistent with European ideals and we should remember why we were set up because there were organisations that did take that approach."
In a further embarrassment, it has since emerged that Mr Hunt’s speech to the conference is the only address by a Cabinet minister not to have been published on the Conservative party website in the days since.
Meanwhile, it was revealed today that Russian spies attempted to hack into an international laboratory investigating the chemical weapons attack in Salisbury.
Elsewhere, Mr Tusk suggested the EU was ready to agree a so-called "Canada +++" free trade deal with Britain, as demanded by Tory Brexiteers.
However, he made no reference to how that would solve the issue of maintaining a frictionless border in Ireland - the main sticking point in the Brexit negotiations.
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