A thinly veiled indictment of Brexit and populist politicians like Geert Wilders and Donald J. Trump.
“Hitler did not steal power,” the pope said. “He was elected by his people and then he destroyed his people.”
Pope Francis warns against populism, citing Hitler
Pope Francis on Saturday warned against populism, saying it could lead to the election of “saviours” like Adolf Hitler. In an hour-long interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais conducted as Donald Trump was being sworn in as US president, the pontiff also condemned the idea of using walls and barbed wire to keep out foreigners, among them refugees and migrants.
Pope Francis:
“Crises provoke fear, alarm. In my opinion, the most obvious example of European populism is Germany in 1933… A people that was immersed in a crisis, that looked for its identity until this charismatic leader came and promised to give their identity back, and he gave them a distorted identity, and we all know what happened,…
…In times of crisis, we lack judgment, and that is a constant reference for me… That is why I always try to say: talk among yourselves, talk to one another,”