Anti-EU backlash

Beyond the fringe

The rise of populists is a threat both to the euro and to the EU as a whole

See article

Readers' comments



Speaking strictly on the subject of style, this is a superbly written article. I've long admired the at once thoughtful and irreverent tone of The Economist. This article upholds that standard to the highest. A fine piece of work.


Gosh, this article will make anti-EU types salivate...

Before their start shouting 'democracy' louder and louder, let me just point out the overall fairness of this report.

I too would welcome reforms that make the EU parliament, for one, more accountable and visible to citizens, but I guess it compares well with the other heavyweights: Russia, India, China and the US.
Prof. Morris notwithstanding, I believe that the US and India have a layered system based on state representation, like it or not, against which the EU institutions compares relatively well.
Russia and China? I leave them to Maher et al. but these are the big state organizations the EU has to deal with.

Yet another opinion

There never was an ideological or political basis for creating a European Union. That is why the EU's real roots lay in the economic foundation of the ECSC.
The Lisbon treaty was an attempt to simplify the EU's complexity by ending the pillar model and restricting the number of different legal acts. However, the total lack of political union and transparency remains.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking and the collapse of a sluggish Union is not unthinkable as another tragedy of the commons.


Chart 2 does not tell me that "Ordinary Europeans see Brussels as remote and elitist". It tells me that people asked for their opinion in a Eurobarometer survey are split on the question if his voice counts in the EU.

That is not to say that nobody sees Brussels as being remote and elitist, but it certainly doesn't necessarily tell us the opposite. Maybe people would have responded in a similar way if asked if they thought their voice counted in their local council or country club.

I often see conclusions being drawn with reference to a chart, where the chart may be one data point but not the full story that leads you to that conclusion. It does not appear as serious journalism.

Rik Howard

[i]In the words of Anand Menon, a British academic, it [the EU] is "structurally condemned to inspire apathy".[/i]

I suggest that the EU instigate an EU-wide public holiday.


All of new European politics in a nutshell: Handouts for True Britons/French/Italians etc. (whoever the hell those are) are social responsibility, handouts for Muslims and other assorted funny-looking people are BRUSSELS MULTICULTURE SOCIALISM.

Still, though, it's a shame the EU is such a bloated mess. It could really have been something beautiful.


Is that really Mr Wilders in the photo?

guest-iwomjow in reply to Bill_T

In an old joke from the defunct German Democratic Republic, a German worker gets a job in Siberia; aware of how all mail will be read by censors, he tells his friends: “Let's establish a code: if a letter you will get from me is written in ordinary blue ink, it is true; if it is written in red ink, it is false.” After a month, his friends get the first letter written in blue ink: “Everything is wonderful here: stores are full, food is abundant, apartments are large and properly heated, movie theatres show films from the West, there are many beautiful girls ready for an affair—the only thing unavailable is red ink.” And is this not our situation till now? We have all the freedoms one wants—the only thing missing is the red ink: we feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom. What this lack of red ink means is that, today, all the main terms we use to designate the present conflict—'war on terror,' "democracy and freedom,' 'human rights,' etc—are FALSE terms, mystifying our perception of the situation instead of allowing us to think it. - Slavoj Zizek
To know more, check out:


Populism? Oh, you mean democracy. Just because people are waking up to the great socialist, federal plan? Many of us have worked hard for our retirements, just to see our pensions flushed down the socialist toilet supporting the world and it's feckless! We've strived to give our kids a good future and what the heck for? So you socialists can flood the UK with any Hans, Pierre and Asif and allow them to use services they didn't pay for!

Now our kids have no jobs, a crap NHS and education system just because we trying to service too many people.

Yes, democracy is on the rise. We all want our countries back.

Luiten in reply to guest-iwsinom

No, you want a job and security. You believe that popular parties - with neo nationalistic dreams- provide those two wishes. It is too easy for popular parties to create a discours on something (the EU) that common people do not really understand. For your kind of people the EU is framed as something that is entirely negative. So even facts about economic growth or functional agreements on food safety are simply put aside because the term EU is mentioned. Be critical, but try to make difference; Instead of neglecting the fact that your entire government structure is far from just national for more than 60 years.

Stephen Morris

"What the EU lacks is not democracy but popular engagement."

No. What the EU lacks is Democracy, both at the EU level and in the member states.

Once again we find the scribblers at Micklethwait’s Paternalist sticking to their script and maintaining the fiction that (so-called) “representative” government is Democracy.

They do this even though the theory of (so-called) “representative” government has long since been debunked as absurd gobbledegook.

They do this even though there is an entire body of constitutional political economy which explains how and why paternalistic “government-by-politician” is destined to fail.

They do this even though such paternalism is contrary to the principles of classical liberalism which they otherwise profess to support.

The Economist wasn’t always like this. There was a time when it was known as a defender of Democracy. Brian Beedham’s articles are widely quoted to this day.

In recent years, however, the once respected newspaper has been infiltrated by paternalistic ideologues who, with each passing week, become ever more desperate as their world collapses around their ears and they try to explain away the manifest failure of their incoherent ideology.



Products and events


Take our weekly news quiz to stay on top of the headlines

