Shutting the door on mass migration is not an option in the 21st century, German parliament president Wolfgang Schäuble has said, urging Brussels to speed up plans for an EU army in order to kill nationalism.

In an interview with local media on Monday, Germany’s parliament chief said he wanted progress towards a joint European armed forces to advance “much faster”, and admitted to feeling “impatient” on the issue.

“We must explain, convincingly, that our defences are better together, then there will be no more room for the nationalists or demagogues,” he said, adding he believes the project has the support of ‘the majority of citizens in almost all EU countries’, reports the Westfälische Rundschau.

Asked why he thought that “demagogues” might be gaining popularity in Europe, Schäuble admitted mass migration was “such an issue”, but then stressed that “nothing is made better by closing the borders and acting only for ourselves”.

“If you talk sensibly with people then they too understand, in the 21st century, that closing borders is no answer,” said the Bundestag president, who — as finance minister in 2016 — claimed Germany’s population would “degenerate” through inbreeding, without massive, “enriching” migration waves of Muslims from third world countries.

“Security within national borders is not something that exists — especially when the world remains an uncomfortable place and because we are doing so well. Europe can find good answers,” he told the regional newspaper.

German Finance Minister: Closed Borders Will Lead To Inbreeding https://t.co/T9xXsQIhWu pic.twitter.com/kKOJh3fBsI — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 9, 2016

The 76-year-old, whose political career in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU) has spanned more than four decades, also touched on the topics of Brexit and France in the interview.

He expressed the belief that Britain will “either not leave the EU at all” or else it would rejoin the bloc at a later date, emphasising the UK “has always” been more detached from Brussels politics while “the core of European unification has always been Germany and France”.

Asked about the Yellow Vest protests,which have seen almost 10,000 people arrested so far during 16 straight weekends of action against France’s globalist, Europhile government — Schäuble downplayed the level of anger in the country at its president Emmanuel Macron, commenting: “Those who bring reforms are always going to provoke some debate.”

Wounded Yellow Vests Denounce Police Brutality in Latest Anti-Macron Protests https://t.co/IX4pkSV2km — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 2, 2019

“Political life in France can cope with the resistance,” he said, adding that he has “great respect for the determination with which President Macron is sticking to his course”.

Many of Schäuble’s sentiments were echoed by his French ally on Monday, when Macron set out his ambitions for a federal EU superstate in an open letter addressed directly to “the citizens of Europe”.

In addition to blasting nationalism and Brexit, the French leader also called for further powers to be transferred away from member states and handed to Brussels, including the removal of national sovereignty regarding the protection of external European borders — a demand which Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán has warned is a desperate attempt by Eurocrats to thwart the successful frontier protection policies of patriotic eastern and central EU nations and force mass migration on the entire bloc.