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Probably the assumption that either Frexit won't happen, or if it does that means the EU is over anyway. The EU is supposedly a union of equals. In reality it
by zigzigzag 10y ago
Probably the assumption that either Frexit won't happen, or if it does that means the EU is over anyway.
The EU is supposedly a union of equals. In reality it isn't. It's run by and for the benefit of the original founding countries, in particular, for France and Germany. That's why the UK leaving is not seen as a threat to the EU's existence but France leaving is, even though in many metrics they're comparable countries.
Of course Amsterdam has the same issue. The country's politics are in some ways more volatile than the UK. The most popular politician there strongly dislikes, maybe even hates, the EU. Whenever this comes up I tend to see Dutch people online saying things like "well it could never happen here because" followed by some explanation of how European moral superiority ensures that even if anti-EU candidates come first in elections nothing will ever change, as everyone else will unite in opposition, which isn't very convincing to put it mildly.
Also bear in mind that we're talking about the eurozone here. Some countries have populations flirting with the idea of exiting the euro but not the EU. I suspect if one tries it they will discover they are fully under the control of the EU and are simply told that their votes will be ignored. It happens all the time in Europe.
- tornadoboy55 10y agoWilders only scores high in the polls and never in the actual elections. Stop selling bullshit.
- tornadoboy55 10y agoSince I can't edit anymore: nice of you guys to put me at -3, but Wilders has had multiple election cycles where he is high in the polls but always ends either low or middling. These are facts since one can simply look up past election results.
- zigzigzag 10y agoAnd polls never indicated the UK would vote out of the EU until it did. So sure, perhaps Wilders won't get anywhere once again. But he's not getting less popular. Political pressure in Europe is building and there doesn't seem to be much of a release valve: in a well functioning democracy you would see other politicians react to a popular upstart by co-opting some of their policies, but that doesn't seem to be happening much (except maybe in France a little bit?).