British far-right politician Nigel Farage on Friday said Cyprus is “prepared to sell” its freedom by virtue of being a European Union member state.

Speaking on Cypriot member of the European parliament Fidias Panayiotou’s podcast, he scoffed at the idea that being in the EU has been beneficial for Cyprus.

“Has northern Cyprus come back, has it? It hasn’t solved any problems with the north,” he began, before turning his attention to the 2013, wherein bank depositors had their deposits wiped out to keep Cyprus’ banking sector afloat.

“If you have a look at what happened with the euro, it wasn’t a bail out, it was a bail in! It was a bail in that happened,” he said.

He then moved on to criticising Cyprus’ outlook in being a member of the EU.

“You’re saying, ‘we’re Cyprus, we’re really small, we’ll just let big people run our country’. I just don’t believe that’s the right approach,” he said, before adding that the EU “bullies people into joining”.

“There is an underlying unpleasantness, I think it’s been bad, I think Cyprus has missed opportunities,” he said, before saying fellow EU member state Malta could have been a “clean financial services hub” but instead joined the EU.

He did concede that Cyprus’ electorate seems to be satisfied with its EU membership, however, saying, “ultimately, it’s a democratic choice and if people in Cyprus are happy with it, it’s what they must have”.

Fidias then challenged him, saying, “the UK left the EU and it seems things are not getting better”, with Farage replying that that is true.

He said the point of the UK leaving the EU was in fact not for things to get better, but for the country to “win back our birthright to mismanage our own country”.

“All we’ve done is get back the ability to make our own decisions. That doesn’t mean we’ll make good decisions, and of course I’m disappointed,” he said, speaking about the state of affairs in the UK since the country left the EU in 2020.

He then turned his attention back towards the EU, saying the “large buildings and wonderful architecture” of the buildings in Brussels which house much of the bloc’s institutions are an “illusion”.

“Europe is declining in terms of its wealth and it is declining in terms of its power very rapidly. There is a transfer of wealth and power from west to east,” he said.

“What Europe is doing to itself, with green policies, welfarism, soft culture, it is diminishing.”

He was then asked about his relationship with Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform Twitter, which he now calls “X”. Musk had offered his support to Farage’s political party Reform UK, but earlier this month declared that Farage “doesn’t have what it takes”.

“Musk is a hero figure when it comes to free speech, and when it comes to dreaming. He is an amazing human being,” he began.

On Musk’s public withdrawal of support for him, Farage said, “we have a disagreement” over jailed anti-Muslim campaigner Tommy Robinson, of whom Musk approves and Farage does not, and that “that was his response”.

“Since then, he has been retweeting me. I don’t see a long-term problem,” he said, before going on to say he still agrees with many of the things Musk says.

“He thinks the western world is going to hell and he’s right, that’s exactly how I feel about it,” he said.

Farage, 60, is currently an MP in the UK, having been elected to represent the town of Clacton in the county of Essex in July last year.

Prior to that, he had been an MEP between 1999 and when the UK left the EU in 2020.

He famously declared after the 2016 referendum which led to the UK leaving the EU that the country would not be the only to do so. Since then, no country has left the bloc. The latest polling in the UK suggests that 48 per cent of Brits would prefer to rejoin the EU, with 36 per cent preferring to remain outside the bloc.