The politics of Brexit in a wavering Europe

By some measures, the countries of the European Union appear to be relatively stable democracies, especially when looking at the political upheavals that are shaking the United States – where a much-indicted former president is likely to be the Republican candidate next year – and the UK, where the Conservatives are facing an implosion after having gone through five Prime Ministers in seven years. In Europe, on the whole, it seems that the adults are still in charge, with the stolid Scholtz taking over in Germany in 2021, the centrist Macron last year winning re-election in France, and more recently Sánchez in Spain seeing off, for now, the far-right threat. Yet, all is not well and the corrosive politics that characterised Brexit and Trump have also firmly taken root in even some of the more wholesome-looking European countries