The end of the European nation-state?

The EU has unleashed forces beyond its control

Don't look back.
(Image credit: Gary Waters/Ikon Images/Corbis)

We live in anti-establishmentarian times. The biggest political sensations in the U.S. are Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. In the U.K., it's the far-left Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. France's Marine Le Pen is riding high.

But while Trump campaigns as a Republican to "Make America Great Again!", in Europe this anti-establishmentarian fervor also takes the shape of independence movements in regional blocs. There was Scotland's independence referendum which showed how out-of-touch European elites are, followed by the obliteration of Britain's Unionist Labour Party in its former stronghold of Scotland by the Scottish National Party. And now in Spain's region of Catalonia a pro-independence party has won a majority of seats in a regional election.

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Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is a writer and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His writing has appeared at Forbes, The Atlantic, First Things, Commentary Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Federalist, Quartz, and other places. He lives in Paris with his beloved wife and daughter.