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Bart De Wever: "Close external borders"

Bart De Wever, the leader of the Flemish nationalist N-VA, Belgium's biggest party, has said that closure of the EU's external borders and greater effort to achieve controlled migration should provide an answer to the many Europeans who are disgruntled and whose concerns led to the victory of the far-right Front National in France.

Mr De Wever told Flemish TV viewers he was not surprised by the success of the FN in the regional elections in France: the FN is responding to social economic unhappiness, concern about terrorism and security and unhappiness about the future of our way of life.

"The solutions that parties like FN propose are not realistic and cannot be implemented, but as long as other parties do not propose alternatives they will experience difficulty."

Mr De Wever favours a re-enforced EU pursuing different immigration policies. He is unhappy with the Schengen Treaty on the free movement of people, goods and services.

"We must close Schengen" the N-VA leader told Flemish TV viewers. "We can't just let people walk through. We should organise care on our external borders and determine who can come in and who can't."

"Migration is a positive phenomenon, but needs to be controlled. Unbridled immigration does not work. I notice that minds are ripening in Europe very quickly. The British PM (David Cameron) and I are in total agreement. I am hearing similar noises emanating from Chancellor Merkel's CDU."

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