It's the last day of my trip to London and some people have asked me what I think about Brexit. As a passionate pro-European, of course I am all for it.
The EU has developed into a centralistic, overregulated super-state which runs contrary to everything good that Europe stands for: freedom, enlightenment, free-market economy, decentralisation of power. So the earlier we abolish it, the better.
My last visit to London was around the day of the Brexit referendum, and I used the picture above as my Facebook cover image then. When I woke up on June 24th, I could not believe that the British really voted to leave the EU. I would not have expected such a good result. So I celebrated the day with a proper English breakfast.
I like the general idea of a united Europe: there should be no trade barriers and Europeans should be able to live and work wherever they want. But open borders do not go together with the welfare state, which encourages people to live at the expense of others.
Europe became wealthy and successful because there has always been competition between its various jurisdictions. The European values of universal human rights and freedom (see chart below which explains them well) could only flourish in an environment where the power of rulers was limited and you could easily cross borders to evade it.
Chart by http://europaeischewerte.info
You can observe this especially well in the case of Germany: it developed into Europe's economic powerhouse during the 19th century, in a period when it was not a unified state, but consisted of many smaller states which competed for the best people, companies and ideas. The unification into a German Reich was a bad move, which lead to world wars and national socialism.
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The Germans should follow the British example and quit the EU as soon as possible. Without two of its biggest paying member states, the EU monster would inevitably die.
This gives us the chance for a restart. We do need a Europe of free trade and easy border-crossing, but without the centralistic regulatory regime of the Brussels EU.
Let's decentralise Europe and make it truly European again!