He certainly was the former. One of his more famous speeches about the European Union was made before the European Parliament in 1989 (remember, this organization is a toy parliament, like the Supreme Soviet and National People's Congress):
The Godfather of the EU, and a behind the scenes leader of the ‘New World Order’
"The (European) Community is living largely by the heritage of the Holy Roman Empire, though the great majority who live by it don't know by what heritage they live."I'm sure everyone here knows, but "Holy Roman Empire" in German is Heiliges Römisches Reich. He essentially called the European Union the Fourth Reich, there.
Don't think that's what he's getting at. As I read his assertion, he's correctly pointing out that European civilization is a footnote to the Catholic Church, that Europe was all woad and human sacrifice before the Church's teaching, and without said teaching it is to those things she shall return.
Nice trolling. Is Olog-hai related to Uruk-hai?
“Reich” is not “empire.” Literally, the English word is “rich.” It’s use as a political term is akin to the notion of a “commonwealth.” Von Habsburg’s words were spoken in English, and had he meant Reich, he would have said Reich.
The EU cannot be the Fourth Reich, because the first three Reichs were specifically German: Charlemagne’s empire, Kaiser Wilhelm’s empire, and Hitler’s intended nation, which was not an empire or kingdom, as it had no emperor or kingdom. Charlemagne’s empire was a Reich, but the third Reich was no empire, and a new Holy Roman Empire would be no Reich.
Face it, von Habsburg was being one of the good guys, trying to insist that any European Union MUST BE Christian to be virtuous. Unfortunately, he lost out to the socialists.
He started working on the EU in the 1930s. It’s my recollection that he shifted things north and west when the Red occupation of central Europe blocked the original idea.