The EU is turning into a Remainer nightmare

To make matters worse, the EU tried to avoid any democratic backlash to these policies by limiting the scope of democratic decision-making by democratically elected governments and focusing instead on quasi-automatic technocratic rules imposed by undemocratic bodies. The European Union effectively became a sovereign power with the power to impose fiscal rules and structural reforms on member states – not exactly what you would expect from the “bulwark of democracy” often portrayed by Remainers.

“The European Union effectively became a sovereign power…”

However, this only exacerbated the disillusionment of many Europeans with both mainstream political parties and the EU institutions themselves, which were seen as beholden to global financial interests and disconnected from the needs of ordinary citizens. Meanwhile, the EU’s handling of the refugee crisis, which peaked in 2015, has further inflamed anti-immigrant sentiments and fueled the rise of right-wing populist parties across the continent. The influx of migrants, mainly from war-torn regions of the Middle East and North Africa, put pressure on resources, fueled social tensions and once again demonstrated the failure of the top-down approach to policymaking in the EU – in this case illustrated by the idea of ​​reinstating quotas that several countries refused to meet.

Today, immigration is once again at the forefront of political debate. The EU border agency Frontex detected more than 350,000 irregular border crossings into the EU last year – the highest number since 2016. EU countries registered more than 1 million new asylum applications, a 20% increase compared to 2022 – on top of the almost six million refugees who have been taken in from Ukraine since the start of the war. It should come as no surprise that seven in ten Europeans believe their country is taking in too many immigrants – and that, faced with the prospect of serious social unrest, governments are running for cover.

On Monday, representatives from several European governments met in Denmark to discuss various types of “durable solutions” to immigration, including plans to relocate asylum seekers to third countries, reminiscent of the British government’s Rwanda plan. Even more astonishing, von der Leyen himself admitted in a recent presidential debate that he would be in favor of third-country migration deals with places like Tunisia and Egypt, even though this would not be possible under the EU’s recently adopted Migration Pact. Ironic, considering that just a year ago several EU governments and senior EU officials criticized the British government for proposing exactly the same policy.

But consistency has never been a valuable currency in Brussels. It was revealed on Sunday that Von der Leyen is also recasting her image as a grandmother with “traditional, conservative family values”, hoping to launder her reputation as a champion of the EU’s green rainbow agenda. ‘#ProudGrandma’ read her hashtag – although this is probably little more than PR. Even as the EU establishment pays lip service to the concerns of ordinary Europeans in an attempt to curb popular resistance to various policy mistakes, it is also doing what it does best: trying to undermine democracy.

Today, this does not primarily come in the form of tools of economic governance, which already exist, but rather in the form of narrative control. In recent months, EU authorities have peddled their own “Russiagate” hoax, claiming that Russia had bribed European politicians to spread disinformation and interfere in the upcoming elections. Russia “uses unreliable media masquerading as media (and) uses money to buy covert influence,” European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová said. “We discovered a pro-Russian network developing an operation to spread Russian influence and undermine security across Europe,” claimed Petr Fiala, the Czech Prime Minister. However, after investigation, the head of the Czech intelligence service admitted that his agency had no information about any bribery scheme.

Even Von der Leyen admitted that there is no evidence of a Russian bribery network. But don’t expect this to stop the EU from doing exactly what it accuses Russia of: interfering in the upcoming elections. On Monday, President of the European Parliament Metsola met with fifty pan-European NGOs to thank them for emphasizing “EU values” in the run-up to the elections. This followed an announcement that the EU has signed partnership agreements with more than 500 NGOs – many at national level – all tasked with promoting EU values ​​ahead of the upcoming elections. In other words, it is an explicit attempt to control the official narrative by labeling all communications that do not conform to the official narrative as “disinformation.”

All this is to say that, however challenging Britain’s economic and political challenges may be, the dysfunctional and increasingly authoritarian nature of the EU is a testament to the fact that Britain made the right choice in disconnecting of a failing block. Although the British political class failed to address many of the concerns raised by the Brexit referendum, the vote nevertheless provided a democratic outlet for many of the tensions now building in the EU – and the country may be open to the possibility of democratic national renewal. And if that isn’t justification enough, we only have to look to the EU to witness the bleak alternative.