Slowly it becomes clear what a monster the EU has become, and how little the Brits have paid attention. Déjà vu?
At a time when the reconfiguration of the World resembles the WWI era, certainly in terms of expansionism by the economic winners of capitalism, Britain again misses the point and will probably again end up defending at least themselves against some form of fascism. Regardless of whether Brexit is a good idea or not, the house of commons has allowed European power politics to set the domestic agenda and are already paying handsomely for their stupidity.
Mistakenly, even so-called left-wing politicians like Gabi Zimmer, equate Britain’s vote for exiting the EU as a rise in the extreme right parties. The mindset behind this accepts the basic tenet that Germany, and other similar countries, are some kind of Hobbesian monster which operate on the basis of Machiavellian power struggles, and whose inner impulses need to be controlled by a Leviathan or some form of Rousseauian social contract. The ‘social contract’ is represented by the EU and despite its serious flaws, is better than ‘anarchistic’ European countries acting independently or through mutual agreement – their base desires or their ‘natural instincts’ need to be contained by a stronger external power – otherwise their societies will collapse and chaos prevail.
From a German perspective this would appear to make sense: all Germany parties, including Zimmer’s own party, operate predominantly on the basis of Machiavellian style power politics, winner taking all, despite the fact that much lip service is given to pluralism. But the monster in the German and the European psyches is growing. The AfD is, by all accounts apart from their own, a party who campaigns for a return to fascism and have replaced Zimmer’s party as the party of protest and for the downtrodden receiving about 25% of the votes in East Germany in the last national election. In response, Zimmer’s party has shifted considerably to the right – ousting traditional lefties and supporting fundamental centralization, massive increases in police power and neo-liberal monetary polices – and even calling for state control of political symbols. The other German parties have also adopted this ‘race-to-the-right’ in attempts to win back votes lost to the AfD.
Germany, and consequently the EU, is politically stuck in the pre-WWI era and therefore sees a super-social-contract as a way of containing their own monsters – a way to protect it and the world from themselves in a desperate attempt not to look at their own ids in the eyes and deal with them directly. Even left parties which claim to offer a fundamental critique of the EU cannot even discuss an alternative relationship between Britain and the EU, as indicated by the German Left’s support of the EU’s refusal to negotiate in the EU parliament. Germany’s problems and inadequacies are being projected onto Brexit in a surprisingly simplistic and reactionary fashion. In other EU countries the reactionism is more explicit, like in Hungary, as they are less shamed about their history and do not enjoy such strong influence in, or economic gains from, the EU. And Ireland is playing silly buggers with its apparently successful attempt to lever the power of 27 states to make territorial claims over what is currently British territory. Although at some level this is quite amusing or even charming, at another it has seriously threatened Brexit and also risks a genuine reunification of Ireland. A united Ireland is far more likely to be achieved if it is undertaken in way that does not threaten ‘mainland-British’ feelings of national sovereignty, and the Brexit process is per se a question of British sovereignty – to combine the two may prove costly in the long run and backfire on the Taoiseach. (Ireland and Britain do need to settle the Northern-Ireland problem once and for all, but they can only do this peacefully as equal partners in a rational negotiation process.)
What of Britain and Brexit? The mess in Europe has been long in the making and Britain has, on the whole, kept itself out, focusing instead on its immediate interests. This approach was more than understandable after the WWII when Britain was bankrupt and needed to rebuild itself, and at a time when colonialism was out of fashion. But for the last half-century Britain has not taken responsibility for Europe and still looks-on after fascism has risen its ugly head again. Leaving Europe to the ‘Europeans’ is a very dangerous strategy indeed.
Let us hope that Brexit does not mean that Britain further isolates itself until the fascists come kicking their door in.