It has been said that the Brexit referendum in the UK opened a Pandora’s Box.
The result did not only distance Britain from the rest of Europe. It also pulverised the two major parties, the Tories and Labour, and brought to the forefront a nationalist and populist politician, Nigel Farage.
The UK is thus in the midst of both a domestic and foreign policy shock.
The victor in the referendum was not only the Brexit block. Populism had already won when PM David Cameron decided to put the issue to a referendum.
At the time, no one had calculated the repercussions of the lies that were marshaled by the Brexiteers and of the resulting storm in domestic politics ushered in by the populists, as opinion polls indicate.
In the summer of 2015, Greece experienced the populism that is the motive force behind such referendums. Here, too, the results were catastrophic.
The knowledge gleaned from those tragic experiences – a new crisis and yet another bailout memorandum for Greece and the travails of the British political system – demonstrates the path the EU should follow from now on in order to transcend the tempest.
