Tusk blames 'utopian' EU elites for Eurosceptic revolt and Brexit crisis 

Donal Tusk
Donald Tusk, the EU's first Eastern European president, has accused Brussels of trampling on the historic nation states 

European Council president Donald Tusk has warned EU leaders in the bluntest terms that their “utopian” illusions are tearing Europe apart, and that any attempt to seize on Brexit to force through yet more integration would be a grave mistake.

In a passionate plea to Europe’s top conservatives, he accused the EU elites of living in a fool’s paradise and provoking the eurosceptic revolt now erupting in a string of countries.

“It is us who today are responsible,” he said, speaking at a conclave of Christian-Democrat and centre-right leaders in Luxembourg. “Obsessed with the idea of instant and total integration, we failed to notice that ordinary people, the citizens of Europe, do not share our Euro-enthusiasm.” 

The warning came as the latest Guardian ICM poll shows the Leave campaign ahead by 45pc to 42pc, a sign that the cannonade of economic warnings from the Treasury, the Bank of England, and global bodies is missing its mark. It is the first time the Brexiteers have led a telephone poll.

Mr Tusk, alert to the patriotic revival in his native Poland, lambasted the EU establishment for pushing “a utopia of Europe without nation states” that goes against the grain of European history and has produced a deep cultural backlash that cannot be dismissed as illegitimate far-right populism.

He called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, and other leaders, to change strategy and abandon their reflexive push for an ever more centralised Europe.

“The spectre of a break-up is haunting Europe and a vision of a federation doesn't seem to me like the best answer. We need to understand the necessity of the historical moment,” he said.

Mr Tusk’s blunt words come amid a raging battle this week within the EU’s socialist and conservative blocs over how to respond if Britain votes to leave the EU on June 23.

There are mounting signs that the Dutch, Scandinavians, and many Eastern European states may not be willing to back any push by Brussels for a ‘Plan B’ of deeper political union – with an ‘EU army’, and joint foreign, security, and border policies - once the British are out of the way.

Nor does the rhetoric from Germany, France, and Italy match reality in any case. The eurozone’s failure to back monetary union with a badly-needed fiscal union a full six years into the EMU debt crisis has nothing to do with Britain, which has eagerly encouraged such a move. It is chiefly due to a German and Dutch veto.

“There would undoubtedly be a Franco-German declaration the day after Brexit, but the truth is that the differences between France and Germany over the way forward for the eurozone have never been greater,” said Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform.

“The Dutch say they never want another EU treaty ever again because that would require a referendum and they know they would lose it. The French don’t want any treaty changes either,” he said.

Mr Grant said Mr Tusk’s harsh words were aimed at the European Commission.  “They are the people who just don’t get it, and are the ones who may well be tempted to try to exploit Brexit for a vault forward,” he said.

The looming menace of Brexit is now dominating every gathering of European political leaders, splitting the EU along fresh lines of cleavage.

The initial reflex in many EU capitals was that divorce would be economically foolish for Britain while the rest of the union would march on serenely – even emancipated – but as June 23 draws frighteningly close this has given way to growing angst that the EU project itself may be at stake.

French president Francois Hollande has already held a special meeting of his inner cabinet to thrash out a response to Brexit, concluding that the whole edifice of Europe’s post-war diplomacy is at risk of collapse.

Pervenche Beres, a leading French Socialist MEP, said she is rooting for a vote to remain but with deep misgivings, dreading the thought of a triumphalist David Cameron strutting the EU stage days later. “The United Kingdom would be even more odious to Brussels if it stays in Europe,” she said.

La Tribune reports that one camp in Paris is pushing for a harsh line to punish Britain – even to the point of denying the UK a Norwegian-style package in the European Economic Area, should it opt for that course – in order to ensure that Brexit fails so spectacularly that no other country dares to follow suit.

But this would tip the eurozone itself back into a deep economic downturn at a time when it is already in deflation with severe unemployment, and several states are on the cusp of a debt-trap. Italy’s finance minister Pier Carlo Padoan has pledged that his country will not adopt a “punishing attitude”.

It is hard to see what would be left of Europe’s moral appeal if it acted on such an impulse, effectively keeping nations locked in by means of threats and fear. Cooler heads in Paris and other EU capitals are already warning that a reflex of this kind smacks of fanaticism and would compound the damage.

Far from dampening support for Marine Le Pen’s Front National or Geert Wilder’s Freedom Party in the Netherlands, it might equally enflame eurosceptic revolt.

Germany wants a calibrated approach that raps Britain across the knuckles, just enough to hurt but not enough to blight strategic relations or to hurt a lucrative market for German cars. “The process of divorce must not be too easy or too pleasant, or others may be tempted,” said Mr Grant.

How Germany aims to reconcile its conflicting objectives is a mystery.

 

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