THE recent election result in Italy has sent a shockwave through the EU.
Predictably, commentators have dismissed the substantial gains by several anti-establishment, anti-immigration Parties as a “return to Fascism”.
In fact, it is a cry from the heart, after 600,000 migrants from North Africa have entered Italy’s ports and welfare centres since 2014.
Under EU rules, they must be processed in the first country they get to.
The problem is that the UN reckons only 30 per cent are genuine refugees from, for example, Syria.
The rest are economic migrants, mostly fit young men, who are not keen to be ‘processed’ and perhaps returned by the authorities.
As a result, many disappear, with 300,000 thought to be at large in Italy at present.
Meanwhile, the country’s economy has stagnated since 2008, with 35 per cent of young people out of work.
One of Sunday’s big winners, Matteo Salvini, head of the La Lega party, said Italians were at the end of their tether.
He also predicts a collapse of the Eurozone, with more powers being handed back to national governments.
In Germany, a much-weakened Angela Merkel has taken five months to scrape together a coalition government, leaving a right-wing, anti-immigration Party as the official opposition, unthinkable only a few years ago.
Mr Macron’s dream of a United States of Europe is looking perilously wobbly.
The last thing the UK needs now is major instability in the EU but, as the people of Europe feel increasingly disenfranchised, they will react as both the Italians and Germans have.
We are leaving for precisely this reason and it’s time for Europe to return to what was originally intended – a trading agreement, while respecting each other’s sovereignty.