Let's Defend Ourselves from Neofacist Nationalism: Roger Waters

Contemporary far-right has rediscovered an old-fashioned domination trick: to treat people really badly and then blame migrants for everything.

The British musician Roger Waters called for the defense of citizens from neo-fascist nationalism, a harmful political ideology which is currently embodied by far-right politicians such as Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), Donald Trump (U.S) or Matteo Salvini (Italy).

"We must defend ourselves against those nationalistic techniques which we have already seen in our lives and which destroy this little planet we live on," Waters said at the 76th annual Venice International Film Festival, where he presented "Us + Them", an documentary against racism.

"We live in difficult times. There it is an establishment that dominates normal people and forces them to feel threatened... If we don't get together and resist this neo-fascism there will be nothing left for the new generations," the British artist added.

In an interview with La Repubblica, the Pink Floyd co-founder also questioned the treatment of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange by the United Kingdom.

“Waters has not given up at all and does not hesitate to call his country, Great Britain,‘ disgusting ’for its treatment of Julian Assange. Last Monday, Waters sang his great classic, "Wish You Were Here" in front of the U.K. Home Office in London in support of Assange, ”the Italian outlet recalled.

"Assange is the pet hate of Western governments ... because he published evidence that shows the US to have committed heinous war crimes, crimes against humanity," Waters said and warned that the US government wants Assange dead so as to leave a message for the new generations: "" if you tell the truth, we will kill you."

This 76-year-old British activist also warned about the rapid political and social transformations that the new right could bring about in Europe, if citizens allow it to do so, obviously.

"If we look back at the model of Germany from 1930 to 1934, it went from a socially democratic relatively free country to a total dictatorship in 4 years... And now in the U.K., the Conservative party leader, the Prime minister of the oldest Parliamentary democracy in the world, is an exact carbon copy of Trump. He is a buffoon."

When asked by La Repubblica about what will happen with the Brexit and its unfinished drama, Waters said that the British political class is destroying democracy.

"It will become a full-bloated dictatorship... what [the Tories] have discovered is all you have to do is to treat the people really, really badly and then explain to them it wasn't you that did it, it was the Blacks, the Muslims,” Waters said and explained that such politics follows “exactly the German model” whose populist discourse blamed immigrants for all the country's problems.