Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium’s staunch pro-EU politician, tried to hail the pan-European cause on Twitter, claiming that multiple identities don’t clash in the continent, provoking the ire of Europeans and Catalans in particular.
“I am from Gent, I am Flemish, I live in Belgium and I am European,” he says in a video he uploaded to Twitter. “There is no contradictions at all! There is no war of identities in Europe!”
Verhofstadt, a key Brexit negotiator in the European Parliament and an over-the-top EU supporter, wrote that Europeans should feel free to choose multiple identities and “be proud of all of them.”
In a matter of minutes, the Twitterati began dismantling the idyllic world portrayed by Verhofstadt. While some acknowledged they were proud to be European, others, including Catalans, pounded the EU boss for the bold statement he was trying to make.
“I’m Catalonian, I want independence for my country of Catalonia, I’m in prison because of my views, you don’t give a s**t,” one wrote.
“1066 persons beaten for their identity. Freedom for Catalonia!” one user wrote, attaching what appears to be images of a pro-independent Catalan protest being dispersed by Spanish police.
Adding insult to injury, others seemingly vented their anger at the EU bureaucracy, accusing it of hijacking the true European idea.
“I am English. I am British and I am proud. What you don’t understand Guy is that people like me love Europe, Europeans, their culture & their food. We just hate the dying, corrupt, protection racket EU. Got it?” a netizen commented.
There were some who said the very idea of identity was utter nonsense.
EU-bashers were also there to make their point.
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