"Then there was General de Gaulle’s double “Non” in 1963 and 1967, which kept us out when we finally thought it might be a good idea to join. Goodness knows what the source of his hostility was"
Well that was the age old "perfidious albion" insult given by De Gaulle because at the time, hethought England was trying to take it's colonies in Algeria. Granted, England was capable of that and worse, but thankfully, Algeria was able to kick the French out on their own. Of course, one of the paratrooper in that war, a war criminal, and one who recently advocated spreading "monsieur Ebola" in Africa is one Marie Le Pen. We will know him better because his daughter, marine, is vocally planning a "Frexit" if she wins the elections next year.
I brought that up because sadly, the author seems to view Europe through Rose Colored Glasses. The ugly fact is, the EU was founded by a bunch of fallen Empires in the hope of not being eaten by the Soviets or Devoured by Americans, but now that neither we nor the Russians are what we were in 1945 (for both good and ill), they are showing their teeth like a bunch of rats with no cats. As much as England is getting a well deserved shaming, the rest of the continent, especially France, will look worse by the time the decade is done. Combine that with a possible Trump presidency, where Putin can con Trump into closing military bases, and you may very well have Europe go from Imperial Euro-fueled arrogance to a heap of charnel the rest of the world picks through.
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