Claim bb2e3702Checked 09 Jul 2026
TrueOn the truth scale
“We were told that, when we had a president, we’d see a giant global political figure.”
Interpreted ashyperbole
“We were told that having a president would produce a very important global political figure.”
Reasoning & Evidence09 Jul 2026
Farage did say this in his 24 February 2010 speech to the European Parliament. Reuters quotes him saying that, when the EU got a president, people expected a “giant global political figure” and “the political leader for 500 million people,” and The Guardian reports the same speech with the same substance. The user’s wording (“very important global political figure”) is a paraphrase, but it captures the core meaning accurately. Sources: Thomson Reuters, *MR IN-BETWEEN: Herman Van Rompuy*; The Guardian, *Ukip's Nigel Farage tells Van Rompuy: You have the charisma of a damp rag*.
From article
Except towards [Herman Van Rompuy,] the president of the European Council? You told him to his face he had ‘the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk’.3On February 24, 2010, he told Herman Van Rompuy, the first full-time president of the European Council: ‘We were told that, when we had a president, we’d see a giant global political figure. … I’m afraid what we got was you. … I don’t want to be rude, but … you have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk. … You appear to have a loathing for the very concept of the existence of nation states. Perhaps that’s because you come from Belgium, which of course is pretty much a non-country.’
Sources opened+ 90 search hits considered
| [1] | theguardian.com |
| [2] | graphics.thomsonreuters.com |