(Photo credit: Getty Images)
Officials in Abu Dhabi on 17 October summoned the acting head of the EU delegation to the UAE, to demand an explanation over the racist comments made by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last week.
The Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation described Borrell’s comments as racist, and said they contributed to a worsening climate of intolerance and discrimination worldwide.
“Europe is a garden. We have built a garden … The rest of the world [is] not exactly a garden. Most of the rest of the world is a jungle, and the jungle could invade the garden,” Borrell said during a speech in Belgium last week.
He went on to add that building walls to protect “the garden” would not work because “the jungle has a strong growth capacity, and the wall will never be high enough in order to protect the garden.”
“The gardeners have to go to the jungle. Europeans have to be much more engaged with the rest of the world. Otherwise, the rest of the world will invade us, by different ways and means,” Europe’s top diplomat stressed.
Josep Borrell: "Europe is a garden. Most of the rest of the world a jungle. The jungle could invade the garden. The Jungle has a strong growth capacity.'
Dear Mr. @JosepBorrellF
This is the WORST ANALOGY of all time, for the following reasons:
a thread🧵 1/7 pic.twitter.com/TbXiEVKZe7— Mohamad Forough (@Mohamad_Forough) October 15, 2022
Besides summoning the acting head of mission at the EU delegation to the UAE, Emirati officials also asked Mr. Borrell’s office to provide a written explanation.
Many others have said Borrell’s speech reflected long-outdated views of European supremacy over the ‘uncivilized’ world. His words also ignore the long history of colonialism that allowed countries in the west to fully develop at the expense of the Global South.
“Colonial nostalgics resurface like monsters,” Qatar’s Minister of State, Hamad al-Kawari, tweeted early on Tuesday in response to Borrell.
La déclaration de Josep Borrell Haut Représentant de l’UE a un relent raciste et suprémaciste. Elle démontre une décadence des valeurs et la pauvreté morale du leadership européen.
Les nostalgiques coloniaux refont surface comme des monstres— Hamad Al-Kawari (@alkawari4unesco) October 18, 2022
Russia also took aim at EU foreign policy chief’s racist comments, with Foreign Minister Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova tweeting: “Europe built that ‘garden’ through the barbaric plundering of the ‘jungle.’ Borrell could not have phrased it any better: the world’s most prosperous system, created in Europe, nurtured by roots in colonies which they ruthlessly oppressed.”
#Opinion by Maria Zakharova@JosepBorrellF compared Europe to a garden, the rest of the world to a jungle.
☝️Europe built that “garden” through plundering. World’s most prosperous system, created in Europe, was nurtured by “roots” in colonies.
🔗 https://t.co/RaxnAPhO45 pic.twitter.com/HOhRr0FLxx
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) October 14, 2022
During a press conference on Monday, Borrell denied that his message was racist or colonialist, according to Spanish news agency EFE. He claimed the comments were intended to reject the idea of ‘fortress Europe’ and to encourage students to engage with the world.