01 November 2018

Guy Verhofstadt: The Brexitization of European Politics

Support for or opposition to Brexit is increasingly supplanting party affiliation as the defining factor in British political identities. Beyond the UK, Brexit and the future it represents are forcing all Europeans to make clear what they believe in, writes the Parliament's Brexit Coordinator .

 

[...]Brexit has left British political and social life more divided than ever. While the Brexiteers are peddling increasingly divisive – even violent – rhetoric, hundreds of thousands of “Remainers” recently marched through London, calling for a “people’s vote” to approve whatever exit deal the government proposes. [...]

Brexit has had a profound effect on EU politics, too. Polling commissioned by the European Parliament finds that overall support for EU membership has increased significantly since the Brexit referendum. Deepening divisions within the UK and a painful divorce process seem to have raised awareness about the benefits of EU membership and the costs of populism, while galvanizing all those who still favor an open society.

Recent political developments seem to bear out these findings. Although the Euroskeptic Swedish Democrats had been tipped to make significant gains in Sweden’s general election in September, more moderate parties routed them. And as support for EU membership has increased, the Swedish Democrats have had to back away from advocating a full EU exit.

Similarly, though Italy’s populists, led by the right-wing League party leader Matteo Salvini, have stepped up their propaganda against “Brussels,” they have also had to retreat from their previous position of supporting an Italian exit from the EU or the eurozone.

These examples would seem to indicate a shift in continental Euroskepticism. Anti-EU parties have abandoned openly advocating the bloc’s destruction and begun to focus more on pushing center-right parties toward the populist and nationalist extremes.

To defeat these parties, centrists, liberals, and democrats need to do more than defend the status quo. They also must demonstrate that by opposing solutions to common European problems, populists are putting their narrow personal and political interests ahead of “the people’s” interests. Even more to the point, pro-Europeans must offer practical solutions to voters’ concerns about migration and unemployment.

The recent regional elections in Bavaria and Hesse, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s announced retirement, have underscored the crisis of traditional center-left and center-right parties. As mainstream parties struggle to adapt to voters’ frustrations and the new polarization of European politics, smaller parties have expanded their reach by offering more succinct visions for change.

But these smaller parties are not limited to upstart nationalist movements such as the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany. Recent municipal elections across Poland have shown that liberal-democratic parties are more than capable of hitting back against populism. Despite the ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party’s politicization of the press, centrist, pro-European candidates made significant gains.

 

Brexit, the rise of populists like US President Donald Trump, and profound changes in the media through which politicians interact with voters have left established political identities more fragmented than ever. But just as this has created an opening for populists, it also presents opportunities for those seeking to form new national and pan-European movements centered around EU values. [...]

Full article on Project Syndicate

 

© Project Syndicate