Brexit has weakened populists on the continent? This is wishful thinking. No longer willing to leave the EU, instead populists are determined to take it over.
Von der Leyen cannot create a second chamber, but she can wholeheartedly embrace the idea, and give Europe’s citizens meaningful ways for contesting decisions directly affecting them.
Those making the decision on April 10 should keep in mind that we are only at the beginning of the long and painful process of redesigning Europe in institutional, economic and cultural terms.
The question is, why do even the most enlightened liberals such as Fawcett and Barnett not really try to offer a set of specific policies to forge a liberal comeback?
Liberal values have been betrayed and we are witnessing a concerted effort to dismantle the system created after the fall of the Berlin Wall – a counter-revolution.
Bankrupt regions, impoverished hospitals, overcrowded prisons: Brexit will affect everybody in Europe. And yet nobody is taking responsibility for the mess.
The EU looks increasingly like an empire, having just created its third protectorate in the Balkans. Greece will effectively be run by the EU the way Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina already are.
