The Romanian Government has collapsed. You don’t care, but you probably should. Europe is crumbling at the edges. Greek nationalism (remember nationalism – died and was buried with the advent of the EU? R.I.P.) is growing – evidenced by their refusal to play ball with either bankers or the ECB. It was this seeming intransigence that led to the plan being tabled for the EU to take over the economic governance of Greece: an annexation in all but name and an extraordinary thing to be put on the table in the age of “democracy”.
Barely noticed in the tumult is Hungary’s growing need to fund its debt and the likelihood of it becoming on EU budgetary assistance, or Portugal’s relentless slide into dependency on the ECB. For well over a year now, the EU has been overriding national sentiment and elected bodies to pursue its corporatistic vision.
Prognostication is a mug’s game (I’ve been predicting that the end game is just around the corner for nearly 2 years) but it’s clear that the pace of events is changing. The Merkozy ‘fiskalunion’ compact – so loudly trumpeted just weeks ago – may get signed into legislation (despite Cameron’s phantom ‘veto’) but the Europeans may as well pledge to send men to the moon, for all the connection with reality such a deal has.
The real end game isn’t being played out in the corridors of Brussels, or being stage-managed by grandstanding politicians and central bankers. It is being played out in the minds of countless millions who have seen their democracies sacrificed, their futures shattered and their identities trampled in the name of saving a distant bureaucracy and a roster of too-big-to-fail institutions via “economics” which have the use and relevance of trailing a finger through fish innards or staring at the stars. How long will it simmer before boiling over?
The demagogues come in times of tumult to feast on discontent and the truth is that the politicians know that they no longer command legitimacy - hence their panic at the mention of plebiscites and democracy. As ever was, a nexus of money and power is coalescing to preserve itself and – has as always happened – an opposing force will arise: either the inchoate rebellion of the masses (see: the “occupy” movement, only with more point) or the emergence of nationalistic strongmen who suddenly find receptive ears.
Melodramatic? You’re right. Go buy some Facebook shares and rejoice.