The European Union needs a George Washington to lead it, says former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing.

“Europe must look for and invent its own George Washington,” said Giscard d’Estaing, mastermind of the original European Constitution. “Let’s not fail and let’s not disappoint the history of Europe in the choice of the first president.”

If the new Lisbon Treaty is ratified in all the EU member states on schedule, then the post of EU president, with a 2½-year term, would be created in 2009.

Calls for a strong leader in Europe are not new. Back in 1978, German politician and Habsburg dynasty member Otto von Habsburg said that in certain emergency situations, governments should let a strongman take over for a period of nine months, allowing him to suspend laws and “take all measure necessary for the maintenance of the life of the population.”

In 1979, the Trumpet’s predecessor, the Plain Truth, wrote, “Observers of the efforts toward European unity have often noted that a lacking vital ingredient on the European scene is a charismatic leader and organizing genius—a new Charlemagne” (September 1979).

After the Ghent summit of EU leader in 2001, Stratfor wrote, “The summit’s failure demonstrated in startling clarity that Europe has no leader capable of forging a European vision. Until that leader emerges, the European Union will be strained simply to finish what is on its plate already, much less commence any new projects. … Eventually someone will arise to fill this vacuum and seize control of the agenda” (Oct. 24, 2001; emphasis ours).

The Trumpet and the Plain Truth have been writing for years that all Europe needs to unite is a strong leader. Men inside Europe, such as Giscard d’Estaing, see the same thing. Whether this strong leader is the first president of Europe or not, a strong leader is coming. This leader, though, will be no great pioneer of freedom and democracy, as George Washington was.

Instead, the EU will get a new Charlemagne. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote, “The first Charlemagne waded through a sea of blood to win converts to Catholicism and expand the Holy Roman Empire. But this history is almost never mentioned.”

Europe’s next leader will be from the same mold as its “great” leaders of the past: Charlemagne, Fredrick the Great, Napoleon, Louis xiv and Adolf Hitler.

For more information about this coming leader, see our articles “The Coming ‘Strong Man’ of Europe” and “Why You Should Watch Edmund Stoiber.”