When in 2015 Greece decided by referendum to reject Brussels’ austerity plans, the European Union’s antidemocratic response took no one by surprise: To deny the people’s will had become a habit. In a flash of honesty, the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, unabashedly declared, “There can be no democratic choice against the European treaties.”
Brexit may not have been the first cry of hope, but it may be the people’s first real victory. The British have presented the union with a dilemma it will have a hard time getting out of. Either it allows Britain to sail away quietly and thus runs the risk of setting a precedent: The political and economic success of a country that left the European Union would be clear evidence of the union’s noxiousness. Or, like a sore loser, the union makes the British pay for their departure by every means possible and thus exposes the tyrannical nature of its power. Common sense points toward the former option. I have a feeling Brussels will choose the latter.
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Marine Le Pen: After Brexit, the People’s Spring Is Inevitable
I don’t believe that Brexit or the dissolution of the EU – if that is what we are witnessing – is the start of the human spring, when the people of the world rise up to take control back from the ruling oligarchy. But it might be a premonition of a European Spring.
I am concerned that the EU will penalize the UK rather than doing what is rational. If a common market is a good idea, why can’t the EU allow a common market of European countries who don’t want full integration into the EU, but where an open market for goods and services still makes sense and benefits all? Do countries have to subordinate themselves to an ideal of European integration in order to exchange wine for wool, or wood for wheat?
from Stowe Boyd http://www.stoweboyd.com/post/146597604402
