The EU is turning into a Remainer nightmare
Militarism, censorship, authoritarianism — the EU is turning into everything Remainers feared Brexit would bring to the UK
I’ve written for UnHerd about the way in which, ironically, the EU is turning into everything Remainers feared Brexit would bring to the UK — and the cognitive dissonance the pro-EU, anti-Brexit crowd must be experiencing as a result:
For years they’ve been painting Brussels as a beacon of progressivism, peace and democracy, as opposed to the far-right, racist and economically suicidal project of Brexit. Yet, ironically, it is the European Parliament, not the British one, that is about to swing firmly to the right, as several European governments already have. Meanwhile, in just over six months, Britain will almost certainly vote Labour back into power — making it one of the few countries in Europe to have a centre-left government.
Across the Irish Sea, by contrast, an anti-immigration backlash has spiralled into country-wide unrest, while several EU governments — and even Ursula von der Leyen’s European People’s Party — are contemplating Rwanda-style asylum deportation deals. Meanwhile, the EU is aggressively cracking down on free speech, both online and offline. Over the past few weeks alone, the police have intervened to break up peaceful assemblies on at least two occasions — a pro-Palestine conference in Berlin and the NatCon conference in Brussels.
On the economic front, Germany, the most important economy in the EU, is mired in stagnation, and facing outright deindustrialisation, along with several other EU countries — all while the EU announces the return of harsh austerity measures. Angry farmers have been laying siege to the bloc’s capitals for months. As for the EU’s “peace project”, all European governments are now on a war footing, while Macron is leading the charge to send NATO troops into Ukraine, lurching Europe closer to an all-out war with Russia.
All this clashes with the Remainers’ rainbow-tinted view of the European Union. But their vision was always predicated on a fantasy: everything that is happening across the Channel is not a betrayal of “EU values”, as they are probably telling themselves — it is an inevitable consequence of the EU’s architecture itself.
Read the rest of the article here.
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Thomas Fazi
Website: thomasfazi.net
Twitter: @battleforeurope
Latest book: The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left (co-authored with Toby Green)
I am increasingly alarmed by the neo-liberal, right wing, authoritarian direction of the EU. Had a massive row/discussion with my husband, niece and nephew on a long drive the other day. They are vehemently anti-Brexit and believe the EU is more enlightened and supportive of its people than the U.K. It seems to me the more distant the government, the more reliant on appointees and technocrats - the less responsive and accountable to the regions it represents. As Tony Benn wisely reminded us in presenting the left wing argument for Brexit… “How do you get them out?” Looking at Ursula VDL and her EU commission minions, I am not optimistic that this massive corporate run superstate can change direction any time soon. Thank you,Thomas,for another very insightful article. PS. I’ve shared it with my niece et al. 😉
Starmer's Labour is not centre-left, it is a soft Conservative party as opposed to the hard Conservative Party. The real socialists, Corbyn, was stitched up with the help the traitor Starmer. Both the UK and EU are turning increasingly into fascistic projects, with some "liberalism" paint slapped on the walls in a vain attempt to cover up that reality.