American and British conservatives have a tendency, when it comes to Europe, to adopt a very simple way of reasoning: the European Union is bad, all who oppose the EU good.
Well, not quite. In continental Europe the EU isn’t opposed by Thatcherites fighting for deregulation and lower taxes, but most of the time by nationalists who will be most happy to go back to a command-and-control economy and who reject the European Union as a “neoliberal” contrivance.
The Italian political situation has evolved in the last few days in a rather unexpected way. The Northern League has staged a dust up over the appointment, in a populist government, of Mr Savona, an 82 years old technocrat who fantasised in public over a plan to “secretly” leave the euro. The head of state refused to make him minister of the economy and no agreement was reached over a substitute. In short, the so-called “populists” have chosen to go back to elections rather than mediating with the head of state. It is a grave and complex institutional crisis.
We may end up with a show-down on the euro and Italy’s EU membership very soon – and the output is hard to predict, though the anti-european parties have the better cards so far. My take in this piece on Politico.eu.
READER COMMENTS
Thaomas
May 29 2018 at 12:47pm
Of course Liberals who thought that the Euro was a bad idea and German “austerity” as a way of getting real exchange rates of PIGS back in line worse, are also pretty negative toward the EU.
Pierre Lemieux
May 29 2018 at 11:56pm
Many libertarians also seem to adopt what you aptly describe as “a very simple way of reasoning.” The EU government tries to be a federal Leviathan, which is difficult. But the real federal component of it, which limits sovereignty (i.e. omnipotence) of the state, is good.
Shane L
May 30 2018 at 5:36am
In addition, attitudes towards the EU are related to political ideology in curious ways, differing across member states. In many countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands and Italy, the right are less favourable towards the EU than the left.
However in Sweden, Greece and Spain, the left is more anti-EU than the right.
http://www.pewglobal.org/2017/06/15/post-brexit-europeans-more-favorable-toward-eu/pg_2017-06-15-eu-brexit-00-05/
Here in Ireland the strongest anti-EU sentiment has traditionally come from the far-left. An anti-Nice Treaty coalition in 2002 was overwhelmingly formed of left and far-left members from such parties as the “Green Party, Sinn Féin, the Socialist Party, the Tipperary Workers and Unemployed Action Group… the Workers Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Irish Socialist Network, [and] the Independent Socialist Forum Against Nice”.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/anti-nice-treaty-alliance-unveiled-in-dublin-1.437445
Meanwhile the British Labour Party promised in 1983 to withdraw from the then EEC unilaterally, without a referendum, back when the Conservatives were strongly in favour of membership. It was very strange to see strong left-wing support for British membership of the EU in the Brexit referendum. How things change.
Matthew Moore
May 30 2018 at 7:18am
As a British libertarian, the EU is a mixed bag.
The four freedoms (movement of capital, goods, services, people) are great. Similarly the curbs on state aid.
However, sadly, these were not adopted as part of a belief in greater liberty or free trade: witness the terrible Common External Tariff against less developed countries, and the looters’ charter of the Common Agricultural Policy. They were adopted as a first step towards a political unification of Europe, which would inevitably be high regulation, high tax.
We can also see this in the adoption of the Euro. Tortuous “optimal currency area” arguments aside, it’s clear that the inflexibility of the system imposed a huge cost – but it was considered a price worth paying for a further step towards political unity.
Repeated democratic rejections of further integration have done basically nothing to slow the pace of it.
It may well be true that the populists of Italy would impose a system worse than that imposed by the EU. However, outside the EU and Euro, there would at least be the possibility of change, once the populists were kicked out.
I still hold out hope that post-Brexit, the UK can become more free and more prosperous (unilaterally removing all tariffs would be a good start, and one that has a good probability of occurring). If, as Scott Sumner says, Corbyn is the future of the UK, then we might be in for a tough decade. But then again, at least we can kick him out in the end.
In the EU Parliament, it really doesn’t matter who you vote for.
John B
May 30 2018 at 9:09am
‘… by nationalists who will be most happy to go back to a command-and-control economy…’
And oddly, despite command and control economy being central to Socialist ideology, those ‘nationalists’ are called extreme right wing.
‘… and who reject the European Union as a “neoliberal” contrivance…’
The EU is protectionist, cronyist, authoritarian by design and practice… Fortress Europe… the antithesis of neoliberalism.
Words nowadays have the exact opposite meaning in our Topsy-Turvey World.
Ron
May 30 2018 at 10:27pm
It’s ironic that Italy’s government, dysfunctional as it is, is in better long term financial shape than the US public sector. Mainly this is because it can control its healthcare and higher-education costs, while the US seemingly cannot. It also does not have long-term war-related costs or such generous and burdensome civil service pensions.
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michael pettengill
Jun 17 2018 at 4:21pm
Yep, going back to either London/NYC banks imposing austerity, or the IMF imposing auterity, in exchange for bailouts of new debt will be really fantastic in ensuring Italy’s total sovereignty.
As Venezuela is demonstrating: printing money instead of begging for loans works really really well for the benefit of 99% of the people.
Why don’t GOP majority States want to exit the Dollarzone so they can print their own money without the forced austerity of the coastal elites in NYC and California where prices of goods and quantity of money are largely dictated nationwide.