“DETERMINED to lay the foundations of an ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe…” proclaims the Treaty of Rome that began the European project in 1957. When the history of the European Union is written, 2014 will very probably come to be seen as an equally significant date, for this was the year that Europe’s voters told its leaders to abandon the noble aspiration that launched the venture more than half a century earlier and has shaped its policies ever since.Even though a big anti-European vote had been expected, the scale of it still came as a shock. In France Marine Le Pen’s National Front (FN) came top with 25% of the vote. The UK Independence Party (UKIP) did better still, with 27%. Almost 40% of the vote in Greece went to broadly Eurosceptic or avowedly racist parties. As many as 30% of the seats in the next European Parliament will be held by anti-establishment and/or anti-European parties. Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, was right to speak afterwards of a political “earthquake”.Prosperity v democracyThe direct political consequences may not in themselves be hugely significant. Within the European Parliament, the populists will probably...
from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1jwIRUR
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