...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...an nations should put the good of Europe before that of their own countries in a remarkably frank interview Friday.
"The thinking must be ’Europe first, then each one of us,’" the pope said in a wide-ranging interview with the Italian daily La Stampa. "’Each one of us’ is not secondary, it is important, but Europe counts more."
"Never forget that ’the whole is greater than the parts.’ Globalization, unity, should not be conceived as a sphere, but as a polyhedron: each people retains its identity in unity with others," he said.
"In the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, we must talk to each other, confront each other and get to know each other. Yet sometimes we see only compromise monologues. No: we also need to listen," he said.
The pontiff made no attempt to conceal his contempt for the policies of Italia’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini, whose motto has been "Italians first." Francis even went so far as to compare Salvini’s speeches to those of Adolph Hitler.
"Sovereignism" ‐ the movement spearheaded in Italia by Mr. Salvini ‐ reveals "an attitude toward isolation," the pope said. "I am concerned because we hear speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934. ’Us first, We...We...’ These are frightening thoughts."