The Daily Telegraph, 15 February 2024, Robert Tombs
I’ve been in France, Germany, Italy and Portugal in recent months, and in talking to people, reading the media and just keeping one’s eyes open, there is a palpable kinship of discontent. Nothing seems to be working. There is rubbish in the streets, vandalism, petty crime, trains that don’t run on time, businesses that can’t get workers, huge illegal immigration, and no-go areas in many towns.
In France, a sharp sense of déjà vu: long medical waiting lists, a friend unattended and in pain in a hospital corridor, overcrowded public transport, and non-stop grumbling. We may have left the EU, but we’re still at the heart of Europe.
But the EU has extra problems that we have so far avoided. The revolt of European farmers has been hard to miss. Journalists have disclosed that a quarter of the total membership of the European parliament has been involved in legal proceedings or other scandals.
The EU, especially its usual suspects France and Italy, bear an unprecedented burden of debt, and the Germans may not be able to prop them up for ever. Donald Tusk is taking rather illiberal measures in Poland, but as he is staunchly pro-Brussels, this is deemed fine.
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