Nigel Farage

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Nigel Farage (2019)

Nigel Paul Farage [ ˈfærɑːʒ ] (born April 3, 1964 in London ) is a British politician , commentator, author and radio host. Farage was a founding member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and its longtime chairman (2006–2009 and 2010–2016). In 2019 he became a co-founder of the Brexit party , which he currently chairs.

Farage was a member of the European Parliament from 1999 until the United Kingdom left the European Union in 2020. He was chairman of various EU-skeptical groups in the EU Parliament .

Farage has appeared as a prominent EU critic since the early 1990s . After signing the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, he left the Conservative Party and became a founding member of UKIP. After unsuccessful sprints at EU and parliamentary elections in 1994 to 1997 he was in the EU election in 1999 in the EU Parliament voted, where he was in 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019, re-elected. In the EU Parliament he served as President of the Independence / Democracy (2004–2009), Europe of Freedom and Democracy (2009–2014) and Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (2014–2019) groups. He was known for his speeches and his verbose criticism of the euro currency.

Farage became UKIP leader in 2006 and led the party into the 2009 EU elections , where it had the second-best result , ahead of Labor and the Liberal Democrats . He resigned in November 2009 to focus on campaigning in Buckingham , the constituency of then Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow , where he finished third in the 2010 general election . In November 2010, Farage was re-elected Chairman of the Independence Party after the resignation of Malcolm Pearson .

Farage was ranked by the Daily Telegraph as the most influential right-wing politician behind Prime Minister David Cameron in 2013 . The Times named him “British of the Year” 2014. In the 2014 EU elections , Farages UKIP was the strongest party with 24 seats. For the first time since 1910, a party won more seats than Labor and Tories in a national election . The election victory increased the pressure on Prime Minister Cameron to hold a referendum on remaining in the EU.

In the 2015 general election , UKIP ousted the Liberal Democrats as the third largest party with 12.6 percent (3.8 million votes), but was only able to win a single seat in parliament under the conditions of British majority voting. Farage announced his resignation after missing the sought-after mandate in South Thanet, but ended up remaining party leader after his withdrawal was denied.

Farage played a prominent role in the successful campaign for Brexit in the 2016 EU membership referendum . He then retired from the post as UKIP boss, but remained a member of the EU Parliament. Farage resigned from UKIP in December 2018 and founded the Brexit Party in 2019, frustrated by Theresa May's government's delay in resignation . The Brexit party became the largest of all parties in the EU Parliament in the 2019 EU elections.

Life

Farage was born in 1964 as one of two sons to a stockbroker who worked in the City of London . His father was addicted to alcohol and left the family when Nigel was a child.

Farage attended the private boarding school Dulwich College in London until 1982 . At the age of 21, he developed teratoma , a malignant testicular tumor . Farage was healed. He worked as a broker for Maclaine Watson after graduating from high school. After the takeover of Maclaine Watson, Farage worked for the investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert , the bank Crédit Lyonnais , the securities trading company Refco and the investment bank Natixis . He was injured on May 6, 2010 when a light aircraft that was pulling a UKIP banner crash landed.

Political career

Nigel Farage (2008)

Farage joined the British Conservative Party while still at school ; he joined in 1992 from back when the Conservative government of John Major the Maastricht Treaty signed.

UKIP

In 1993 Farage was one of the founding members of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which sought Britain's exit from the European Union .

In the 1999 European elections , Farage was elected to the European Parliament (as one of three UKIP MEPs), as well as in 2004 (one in ten), 2009 (one in 13) and 2014 (one in 24). Farage became chairman of the Independence / Democracy group and also chairman of UKIP in September 2006 after he had announced that he wanted to increase the number of MPs in local, national and other elections through a tighter party leadership. UKIP should stop being perceived as a one-topic party and seek allies in other parties for its goal of leaving the EU (“ Brexit ”). His Better Off Out campaign initially met with little response from other parties. After the 2009 European elections , Farage and Francesco Speroni took over the chairmanship of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD), the successor to the Independence / Democracy Group.

As chairman of the parliamentary group, Farage attracted attention through various controversies, in which he made public an amnesty suspended sentence for the French EU Commissioner for Transport Jacques Barrot for embezzling two million pounds of state funds or denouncing a sailing holiday, the Commission President José Manuel Barroso with the Greek multibillionaire Spiros Latsis undertook on his yacht a month before the EU Commission under Barroso's predecessor Romano Prodi approved Greek state aid of 10.3 million euros for Latsis' shipping company. In 2010 he questioned the legitimacy of the method by which Herman Van Rompuy came into office as President of the European Council , as the latter was previously completely politically unknown. He attested Rompuy the “charisma of a damp rag” with the “appearance of a subordinate bank clerk” and described Belgium as “ pretty much a non-country ”, whereupon he was fined 3,000 euros and he made an apology to bank employees.

In preparation for the 2010 British general election , Farage announced his resignation as UKIP party leader in September 2009 in order to focus on his candidacy against John Bercow , Speaker of the House . His successor in the chairmanship of UKIP was Malcolm Pearson , who resigned in August 2010. Farage, whose lower house candidacy was unsuccessful, then ran again for the UKIP chairmanship and won the internal election against David Campbell Bannerman , Tim Congdon and Winston McKenzie .

As an EU parliamentarian, Farage was co-chair of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group in the Conference of Presidents from 2009 to 2014 . Otherwise Farage did not serve on any committees or delegations.

In connection with the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area and the rescue package , Farage spoke out clearly against the bailout for Greece and described it as a maneuver to distract attention from the problems in Spain and Italy.

After he was defeated by his rival candidate Craig Mackinlay from the Conservative Party in the 2015 general election in the British constituency of Thanet South , Farage, as he had announced in this case, announced his resignation as party chairman of UKIP, which was rejected by the party executive on May 11, 2015 has been.

EU exit referendum and the time after

Farage is considered to be a key figure for the success of the Brexit supporters in the EU referendum on June 23, 2016. He was vehemently involved in the election campaign. In the referendum, 72.1% of the electorate voted - 51.9% of the votes for a Brexit (“Leave”) and 48.1% against (“Remain”).

On July 4, 2016, Farage surprisingly announced that he would give up his post as UKIP party leader because he had achieved his goal of leading the UK out of the EU. He was quoted as saying, "I want my life back."

On January 11, 2018, Farage said on a talk show that he could imagine a second Brexit referendum. Farage wrote in a column on August 17, 2018 that it was time to teach the political class in Westminster a lesson. He will go through the country with the Leave Means Leave campaign to protest against the May government's Brexit plan and to fight for a tough exit from the EU.

Presidential election campaign in the United States 2016

On August 25, 2016, Farage appeared in support of the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a gathering of 15,000 activists in Jackson, Mississippi , calling on them to rise up "against the establishment" in Washington.

In October 2016, Farage praised Trump for dominating Hillary Clinton “like a silverback gorilla”, but also criticized his statements in the election campaign against women, Muslims and Mexicans.

For his part, Trump proposed Farage for the post of British Ambassador to the United States in a tweet on November 22, 2016. The British government replied that the post of ambassador had already been filled by Kim Darroch , who had only assumed office in January 2016, and that ambassadors had usually been in office for at least four years. Former Ambassador Christopher Meyer stated that "you can listen to the proposal and then politely but firmly reject it". In a comment, Farage said that disgusting him, UKIP and the referendum outcome are more important to the government than doing things that are good for the country. He is "in a good position to help his country with the support of the president".

UKIP left the party

After UKIP chairman Gerard Batten named controversial Tommy Robinson as his advisor on November 22, 2018 , Farage called for Batten to be voted out of office. This pulls UKIP “in a shameful direction”. UKIP must strive to be a "non-racist, non- sectarian party". A few days later, on December 4, 2018, he announced his resignation from the party. As a justification, he said that he “could hardly recognize UKIP” and that she had become blind to extremist currents. Chairman Batten is downright obsessed with the subject of “Islam” - not just “Islamism” - and also with the person of Tommy Robinson. The association with Robinson and the English Defense League will lead UKIP "away from a parliamentary party to a party of street activism".

Brexit party 2019

At the beginning of 2019, the Brexit party was founded with the knowledge and support of Nigel Farage . A short time later, Farage joined the party, became its chairman and ran with her in the European elections . The party became the party with the strongest vote with 30.5%, and Farage moved back to the European Parliament as one of 29 members of the Brexit Party. With the end of EU membership on January 31, 2020, his mandate in the European Parliament also ended.

In the election campaign for the British general election in 2019 , Farage was embroiled in a police investigation after he had alleged that he and other members of the Brexit party had been offered peer dignity and a seat in the House of Lords if they were not in the election compete. Scotland Yard then opened an investigation.

family

Farage has been married to the German Kirsten Mehr since 1999, with whom he has two children and from whom he lives separately. He has two children from his first marriage. The two children from his marriage to Kirsten Mehr have both British and German citizenship .

Web links

Commons : Nigel Farage  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruno Waterfield: Ukip's Nigel Farage faces reprimand after calling Herman Van Rompuy 'wet rag' . In: The Daily Telegraph , February 25, 2010. Archived from the original on January 6, 2016. 
  2. ↑ Tim Adams: Nigel Farage: I was never scared of being out on a limb . In: The Guardian , July 21, 2012. Archived from the original on October 14, 2012. 
  3. ↑ Top 100 most influential right-wingers . In: The Daily Telegraph , October 2, 2013. Archived from the original on April 18, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016. 
  4. ↑ Man of the Moment . In: The Times , December 30, 2014. 
  5. ↑ UK's Eurosceptic UKIP party storms to victory in Europe vote . In: Reuters . May 26, 2014. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
  6. ↑ 10 key lessons from the European election results . In: The Guardian . May 26, 2014. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
  7. ↑ Lurching Right: UKIP win Creates Pressure for Cameron and Europe . In: Der Spiegel , May 27, 2014. Retrieved May 31, 2014. 
  8. ↑ Nigel Farage has earned his place in history as the man who led Britain out of the EU . In: The Daily Telegraph , June 24, 2016. Archived from the original on June 27, 2016. 
  9. ^ Nigel Farage: Flying Free. Biteback Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1-849-54286-9 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  10. ↑ Matthew Weaver: Ukip's Nigel Farage injured in airplane crash. In: The Guardian . May 6, 2010, accessed December 31, 2011 .
  11. ↑ UKIP MEP Nigel Farage crashes in light plane during 2010 Election Day in UK. In: YouTube . Retrieved December 31, 2011 .
  12. ↑ Nigel Farage insults Herman van Rompuy, calls EU President a “Damp Rag”. In: YouTube. October 24, 2010, accessed December 18, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Carsten Volkery: British right-wing populist bepöbelt EU president. In: Spiegel Online . March 2, 2010, accessed December 31, 2011 .
  14. ↑ Dorothea von Wurmbrand-Stuppach: Interview with Nigel Farage: “The faster the euro disappears, the better for everyone” ( Memento from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: Markenpost.de. July 26, 2011.
  15. ↑ Nigel Farage resigns as UKIP leader as the party vote rises. In: BBC News . May 8, 2015, accessed May 8, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Nigel Farage resigns. In: Spiegel Online. May 11, 2015.
  17. ↑ Alexander Menden: The man whom “the British people decided to follow”. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 24, 2016.
  18. ↑ Results. In: BBC News . Undated, (C) 2019, accessed May 25, 2019.
  19. ↑ Ukip boss and Brexit supporter Nigel Farage resigns. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . July 4, 2016, accessed July 4, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Farage can imagine a second Brexit referendum. In: FAZ.net. January 11, 2018.
  21. ^ Nigel Farage: The time has come to teach the political class a lesson: I'm back fighting for a real Brexit. In: The Daily Telegraph . 17th August 2018.
  22. ↑ Peter Stäuber: What is Brexit supposed to be good for? In: Zeit Online. 23rd August 2018.
  23. ↑ Donald Trump can beat polls, UKIP's Nigel Farage tells rally. In: BBC News. August 24, 2016, accessed on August 24, 2016 .
  24. ^ Robin de Peyer: Nigel Farage praises 'silverback gorilla' Donald Trump for 'dominating' Hillary Clinton. In: Evening Standard . October 10, 2016, accessed October 16, 2016 .
  25. ↑ Jane Martinson, Rowena Mason, Molly Redden: Nigel Farage backtracks on Donald Trump support amid groping claims. In: The Guardian. October 15, 2016, accessed October 16, 2016 .
  26. ↑ Nigel Farage attacks response to Trump ambassador tweet. In: BBC News. November 22, 2016, accessed November 22, 2016 .
  27. ↑ UKIP leader defends hiring Tommy Robinson. In: BBC News. November 23, 2018, accessed December 12, 2018 .
  28. ^ Former leader Nigel Farage quits UKIP. In: BBC News. December 4, 2018, accessed December 5, 2018 .
  29. ^ Nigel Farage launches Brexit Party ahead of European elections. BBC News, April 12, 2019, accessed April 12, 2019 .
  30. ↑ Benjamin Kentish: "General election: Met Police assessing electoral fraud claims after Farage says senior Brexit Party figures offered peerages to step aside" The Independent.co.uk of November 16, 2019
  31. ↑ Nigel Farage and wife Kirsten 'living separate lives'. BBC News. February 6, 2017.
  32. ^ Nigel Farage: two of my children have German passports. In: The Guardian. April 18, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Farage, Nigel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Farage, Nigel Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British commodities trader and politician (UKIP), MEP
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Farnborough