Boris Johnson, a UK Cabinet minister and until earlier this month mayor of London, on Sunday alleged that the European Union was trying to create a superstate eerily similar to what Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had tried to do.
In an interview with the 'Sunday Telegraph', Johnson, one of the leading proponents of the UK's exit from the 28-nation bloc in the upcoming June referendum on British EU membership, said: "Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods.
Hilary Benn, the foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Labour Party, said: "After the horror of the Second World War, the EU helped to bring an end to centuries of conflict in Europe. And for Boris Johnson to make this comparison is both offensive and desperate."
European Council President Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, also rejected the analogy. "When I hear the EU being compared to the plans and projects of Adolf Hitler I cannot remain silent. Such absurd arguments should be completely ignored if they hadn’t been formulated by one of the most influential politicians in the [UK’s] ruling party.
"Boris Johnson crossed the boundaries of a rational discourse, demonstrating political amnesia," said Tusk.
