Au Revoir Britannia by Sylvie Bermann sampler

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au revoir britannia net, Brexit in fact turned out to be the first episode of the crisis in representative democracy caused by a groundswell that had been kept below the radar in other countries. Commentators can, a posteriori, analyse the first weak signals of this movement to conclude that it was obvious or unavoidable, but this wasn’t the case at the time. The second episode was no doubt the election of Donald Trump, highly unlikely right up until the last minute, and analysed the following day as a revolutionary protest by those who felt left behind by globalisation, a protest which profited a millionaire real estate developer. The similarities were very marked: a frustrated electorate; the methods employed, including the use of Cambridge Analytica; the shift towards the right-wing in the Republican Party in the United States and in the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, amplified by the media controlled by Rupert Murdoch; and the exploitation of these frustrations by a populist leader. We paid only scant attention to the advance of populism in Hungary or Poland, countries that we generally think of as lacking in solid democratic traditions due to their history and for which we invented the term ‘illiberal’. More striking is the conjunction of both left-wing and right-wing populism in Italy represented by the Five Star Movement and the Northern League respectively, then the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) in France, more anarchic and violent since refusing to put any sort of leader in command, even one from their own ranks, who appeared on the streets 18 months after the election of a young, centrist president. These populist movements have very similar ingredients and characteristics: so-called anti-establishment demonstrations, and the demand for an immediate, imaginary, democracy without mediation or any need to vote but with the power, nevertheless, to require the departure of leaders or the ‘deselection’ of elected members of Parliament. iii iii In the United Kingdom, a member of Parliament who no longer represents the opinions of his base can be deselected by the local branch of his party. 32
introduction This illusory and harmful rejection of political competence and experience makes it difficult for politicians to govern since the people have become all-powerful or, to use a word invented by the French, a peuplecratie. 12 It is important to draw lessons from this for our democracies and for the European Union, which remains a relevant force on the world stage, more so given the risk that populists, who have been muted during management of the COVID pandemic, may well be waiting in the wings, ready to exploit the economic inequalities and frustrations to which the pandemic has given rise. At an internal level, the unity of the United Kingdom is under threat. The risk of Scotland seceding and Ireland reunifying is like an ever-present sword of Damocles. Scotland, which voted Remain, wanted to stay in the European Union at any cost. Brexit offers a new opportunity for a referendum on independence, more so in that relations between London and Edinburgh have deteriorated as a result of management of the health crisis. In August 2020, a YouGov poll gave 53 per cent of Scots in favour of independence the first time (a figure to be treated with caution, naturally). 13 Ireland was the stumbling block for the negotiations under Theresa May since that is where the border with the EU lies, a border which must be subject to controls in order to prevent smuggling. There were two possible options here: a land border between the North and the South, or a border in the sea between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Theresa May declared that no British prime minister could ever accept the latter option, which did not prevent Boris Johnson from agreeing to it in October 2019 in order to conclude the deal. It did not stop him from backtracking on the issue during subsequent negotiations with the European Union either. At an international level, Britain will need to overcome many contradictions in its dealings with other nations at a time when China, Russia, India or Turkey harbour dreams of empire under the leadership of strong men, when there is unilateralism in the United States and when global challenges are of primary 33
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Au Revoir Britannia by Sylvie Bermann sampler

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