Algemeen·NRC·1 mei

Europe’s unpopular leaders are paralysing the EU

To keep the European Union ticking along has always required a certain sleight of hand. National leaders of its 27 member states act as the bloc’s chief conjurors, selling the illusion to voters back home that every compromise hashed out at some interminable summit in Brussels marks yet another victory for Poles, Spaniards or whoever. Alas, such tricks become harder to pull off when voters stop trusting the magicians. And European publics these days seem to have seen through the smoke and mirrors: across the continent, leaders have been plumbing recent depths of unpopularity. In France and Germany, the  EU ’s two biggest countries, approval ratings have sunk to something akin to contempt. This is more than a mere obstacle to politicians’ hopes to one day sell a fat pile of memoirs and earn handsomely on the lecture circuit. Like the best magic, the reforms which Europe needs still depend on the audience’s willingness to be taken in. The  EU  cannot outrun the unpopularity of its political class.