They should erect a Trumpian gold-plated statue of Farage in Brussels.
Orban too.
"Britain was first. The divisiveness of the Brexit referendum, and the buyer’s remorse that has set in, is a first-class education in what not to do. Tellingly, Europeans started to become more optimistic about the EU in 2016. For services to the European project, there should be a statue of Nigel Farage in Brussels, at least the equal of Manneken Pis in dignity and craftsmanship.
Another donor to the European cause has been Donald Trump’s America. Though its tariffs are painful and its electoral interference close to unprecedented, the net effect is to make the case for a stronger Europe. As in the Gulf, the Trump administration keeps tripping up on one point: other places can do nativism too.
But the most generous and inadvertent benefactor of the EU is Russia. There is nothing like mortal danger to bring a club together. And so three nationalist shocks — Brexit, America First, Russia’s war — have given a multilateral, technocratic and liberal institution a sense of existential purpose that it was starting to lack. A man of Orbán’s almost Wildean liking for paradox (he used the term “illiberal democracy” to describe his governing vision) should smile at this, however ruefully.
Also, while we are on the theme of contradiction, there is such a thing as an anti-elite pro-European. It is possible to support Brussels on the basis that one’s own national governing class is more inept, self-dealing and high-handed. Britain, being or at least thinking itself well-run, had for decades a blind spot for this vein of opinion on the continent.
No longer. The debasement of its own political elite post-2016 has brought the UK closer to the European experience. Every so often, the Labour government announces that it is making a step towards the EU. Conservatives scream betrayal. Voters shrug. Through their comportment in office, Brexiters have forfeited the benefit of the doubt."
FT.com
Orban too.
"Britain was first. The divisiveness of the Brexit referendum, and the buyer’s remorse that has set in, is a first-class education in what not to do. Tellingly, Europeans started to become more optimistic about the EU in 2016. For services to the European project, there should be a statue of Nigel Farage in Brussels, at least the equal of Manneken Pis in dignity and craftsmanship.
Another donor to the European cause has been Donald Trump’s America. Though its tariffs are painful and its electoral interference close to unprecedented, the net effect is to make the case for a stronger Europe. As in the Gulf, the Trump administration keeps tripping up on one point: other places can do nativism too.
But the most generous and inadvertent benefactor of the EU is Russia. There is nothing like mortal danger to bring a club together. And so three nationalist shocks — Brexit, America First, Russia’s war — have given a multilateral, technocratic and liberal institution a sense of existential purpose that it was starting to lack. A man of Orbán’s almost Wildean liking for paradox (he used the term “illiberal democracy” to describe his governing vision) should smile at this, however ruefully.
Also, while we are on the theme of contradiction, there is such a thing as an anti-elite pro-European. It is possible to support Brussels on the basis that one’s own national governing class is more inept, self-dealing and high-handed. Britain, being or at least thinking itself well-run, had for decades a blind spot for this vein of opinion on the continent.
No longer. The debasement of its own political elite post-2016 has brought the UK closer to the European experience. Every so often, the Labour government announces that it is making a step towards the EU. Conservatives scream betrayal. Voters shrug. Through their comportment in office, Brexiters have forfeited the benefit of the doubt."
FT.com
