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EU chief calls Boris Johnson’s EU-Nazi comparison ‘absurd’

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 22, 2016 file photo, Boris Johnson arrives for a meeting at Downing Street in London. Ex-London Mayor Boris Johnson has compared the European Union’s aims to those of Adolf Hitler, arguing that the 28-nation bloc is creating a superstate that mirrors the attempt of the Nazi leader to dominate the European continent. Johnson’s remarks in The Sunday Telegraph on Sunday, May 15 elicited outrage on the part of those campaigning to remain in the EU ahead of a June 23 vote on whether to stay or go. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file)
FILE - In this Tuesday, March 22, 2016 file photo, Boris Johnson arrives for a meeting at Downing Street in London. Ex-London Mayor Boris Johnson has compared the European Union’s aims to those of Adolf Hitler, arguing that the 28-nation bloc is creating a superstate that mirrors the attempt of the Nazi leader to dominate the European continent. Johnson’s remarks in The Sunday Telegraph on Sunday, May 15 elicited outrage on the part of those campaigning to remain in the EU ahead of a June 23 vote on whether to stay or go. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file) FILE - In this Tuesday, March 22, 2016 file photo, Boris Johnson arrives for a meeting at Downing Street in London. Ex-London Mayor Boris Johnson has compared the European Union’s aims to those of Adolf Hitler, arguing that the 28-nation bloc is creating a superstate that mirrors the attempt of the Nazi leader to dominate the European continent. Johnson’s remarks in The Sunday Telegraph on Sunday, May 15 elicited outrage on the part of those campaigning to remain in the EU ahead of a June 23 vote on whether to stay or go. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file)

By Associated Press 2 min read

BRUSSELS (AP) – European Union President Donald Tusk waded into the British debate on EU membership Tuesday by deriding ex-London Mayor Boris Johnson for comparing the bloc’s aims to those of Adolf Hitler.

Tusk said even though the EU had stayed on the sidelines of the British referendum campaign on whether it should leave the EU, “when I hear the EU being compared to the plans and projects of Adolf Hitler I cannot remain silent.”

Johnson argued over the weekend that the 28-nation bloc was creating a superstate that mirrors the attempt of the Nazi leader to dominate the European continent.

“Such absurd arguments should be completely ignored if they hadn’t been formulated by one of the most influential politicians of the ruling party,” Tusk said in Copenhagen.

Britain holds a “leave or stay” in referendum on June 23 on its always cantankerous relationship with the EU and the campaign has been getting increasingly edgy.