Tusk blames ‘utopian’ EU elites for eurosceptic revolt and Brexit crisis, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. Our PC elites are blinking, realizing they could lose it all.
Europe’s president Donald Tusk has warned EU leaders in the bluntest terms that their “utopian” illusions are tearing Europe apart, and that any attempt to seize on Brexit to force through yet more integration would be a grave mistake.
In a passionate plea to Europe’s top conservatives, he accused the EU elites of living in a fool’s paradise and provoking the eurosceptic revolt now erupting in a string of countries.
Really? Fool’s paradise? Uh huh.
“It is us who today are responsible,” he said … “Obsessed with the idea of instant and total integration, we failed to notice that ordinary people, the citizens of Europe, do not share our Euro-enthusiasm.”
Mr Tusk, alert to the patriotic revival in his native Poland, lambasted the EU establishment for pushing “a utopia of Europe without nation states” that goes against the grain of European history and has produced a deep cultural backlash that cannot be dismissed as illegitimate far-right populism.
So the concerns of the opponents of PC are “legitimate” after all. Well well. That’s a rare concession from those people — they usually eschew honesty in favor of marketing.
There are mounting signs that the Dutch, Scandinavians, and many Eastern European states may not be willing to back any push by Brussels for a ‘Plan B’ of deeper political union – with an ‘EU army’, and joint foreign, security, and border policies – once the British are out of the way.
The initial reflex in many EU capitals was that divorce would be economically foolish for Britain while the rest of the union would march on serenely – even emancipated – but as June 23 draws frighteningly close this has given way to growing angst that the EU project itself may be at stake.
French president Francois Hollande has already held a special meeting of his inner cabinet to thrash out a response to Brexit, concluding that the whole edifice of Europe’s post-war diplomacy is at risk of collapse.
hat-tip Stephen Neil
