Threat of Brexit can be Europe’s wake-up call

The Leave campaign is reactionary and untruthful, but because of it, leaders in Europe are beginning to heed the discontent growing across the continent, says Giles Merritt

THERE’S a silver lining to the dark clouds of populist Euroskepticism crowding in on the European Union. In Brussels, and in a number of Europe’s capitals, leaders know that the EU must respond to mounting discontent, and that, at long last, there is political capital in doing so.

The catalyst has been Britain’s nonsensical Brexit debate. The arguments of Leave campaigners are inaccurate, when they are not outright lies; but the furious debate in Britain over whether to remain in Europe has laid bare the EU’s deep-seated weaknesses, and has forced European leaders to heed them.