Nigel Farage To EU Parliament: Make Us An Offer Not A Ransom Note, EU "Gangsters" Owe UK Billions

Comments Wednesday in the EU Parliament from Nigel Farage, leader of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy party, and UK Independence Party MEP for Great Briatin. Farage successfully lead the effort to force his country to leave the European Union and is now working on the negotiations, telling the EU leaders that the UK is a "shareholder" in the European Union and should be paid out for its investment.

"It may have taken nie months -- a pretty full gestation -- but be in no doubt, that last Wednesday was a great historic day when the United Kingdom announced that we were going to become an independent, self-governing, democratic nation once again. And act which has been cheered by hundreds of millions of people all over the world!"

"In 1973, we did not join the European Union -- we joined the Euroepan Economic Community. And had the British people known that it was intended to get political and take away our ability to govern ourselves, we never would [have joined]," he said.

He continued, responding to the EU's demands: "I'm sorry to say, the response to the triggering of Article 50 has been all to predictable. Already you've made a series of demands that are not just unreasonable, but are clearly impossible for Britain to comply with. You begin by telling us we have to pay a bill! A cool 52 billion Pounds Sterling -- a figure that has clearly been plucked out of the air. Effectively a form of ransom demand. What you could have acknowledged is that we put, net, over 200 billion Sterling into this project, we're actually shareholders in this building, and the rest of the assets, and really, you should be making us an offer we can't refuse."

"[You] tell us we can not discuss trade deals with anyone else in the world until we've left the European Union? That has no basis in treaty law whatsoever. And it is rather like saying, you can't guarantee yourself a dwelling for when you leave prison, and I trust the British government will completely ignore you," Farage continued.

"You've shown yourselves with these terms to be vindictive, nasty, and all I can say is thank goodness we're leaving. You're behaving like the mafia. You're acting like we're a hostage. We're not. We're free to go! We're free to go."

At one point he was interrupted by Antonio Tajani, president of the European Parliament who said: "Listen, I'm trying to give you a chance to speak and say everything you want to say, but if you're... going to say this parliament is behaving like a mafia, as far as I'm concerned, that is unacceptable."

"I do understand, Mr. President, national sensitivities," Farage quipped back to the Italian president. "I'll change it to gangsters."

"What must be difficult for all of you to get into your minds is that there is a bigger world out there than the European Union," Farage said amid jeers. "85% of the global economy is outside the European Union, and if you wish to have no deal, and force us to walk away from the table, it is not us that will be hurt. We don't have to buy German motor cars, we don't have to drink French wine, we don't have to eat Belgian chocolate. There are other people who will give that to us. A return to tariffs will risk the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people living in the European Union, and yet what you are saying is you want to put the interests of the Europeane Union above that of your citizens and your companies. And if you continue with that route, it won't just e the United Kingdom that triggers Article 50, there will be many more to come."