Getting the anti-European ghost back in its bottle

In principle, N-VA-chairman Bart De Wever isn’t a proponent of referendums anyway, but as far as he was concerned, the referendum on the United Kingdom’s EU membership was doomed from the start. “Cameron  released something that he could no longer control. I think that yes, he made a bet that he lost.”

Bart De Wever is not beating about the bush: “I think the English have made a very foolish choice.” However, he doesn’t think the European Union is blameless either. “I think for Europe it would be prudent to consider why people are becoming so anti-European, not just in Great Britain, but in many European countries. Why has the siren call of anti-European discourse become so forceful? Because if you fail to get the anti-European ghost back in its bottle, you’ll have a serious problem on your hands.”

European answers

Bart De Wever thinks that this has everything to do with the fact that a number of serious crises still haven’t been reined in, while people continue to look to Europe for answers. At the same time he personally sees three challenges hampering not only the multitude of Brits having voted for a Brexit, but also the many Europeans who currently see Europe as part of a problem: “The EU must close the outer borders of the Schengen Area and call for a halt to free entry into Europe. The EU must also remedy the dysfunctionalities of its internal market. Social dumping by Eastern European employees, for example, is a real problem. And within Europe, moreover, we must significantly bolster our security partnership, especially in the fight against terror.”

Lessons to be drawn

Bart De Wever hopes the eurocratic elite will finally draw the necessary lessons from this debacle. “If you are not a partner of the citizens and if you are not involved in the problems that keep the citizens awake at night, then you are responsible for creating the caricature ivory tower in Brussels, where an obscure figure like Juncker, who nobody voted for and who nobody really knows, makes decisions in secret over issues which no one has any control.” What completely fails to improve the situation are the haughty statements about Brexit by that same Juncker and other fellow eurocrats. “The spirit of revenge heard among some is terribly misguided,” Bart De Wever concludes. “England is and continues to be our neighbour. It is one of our most significant trade partners and for Flemish export it is extremely important. It is thus in our best interest to keep them in that internal market to the greatest extent possible.”