Originally Posted by
Slant
Populists aren't all riding the anti-EU wave. That's really just a platform for minorities and populists hijack their agenda... take AfD as an example. It started in Germany as an anti-EU platform not unlike UKIP and it was not at all successful, having led a rather insignificant existance for many years. And somehow, in the course of the migrant crisis, AfD got overrun by nazis, nazis that have been members of parties that were forbidden as unconstitutional before. And on that platform of anti-EU, anti-establishment, those nazis managed to gain votes in a meaningful manner for the first time since WW2. Does this mean they are anti-EU? Well, yes... but that's not their main agenda, it's not what nazis are about. Nazis, technically speaking, are very European. They're probably just as much pro-Europe as I am. The difference is, they prefer a Europe under German rule. You see, populists don't care about the subject or topic. They care about power. That's all they care about.
the gillet jeunes... forgive me, but even if this is new to you, I'm not impressed nor shocked at Paris burning. Paris burned a dozen or so times before. Just like it's customary in Germany to have Berlin and Hamburg burning on May 1st. And their main concerns aren't connected to the EU in particular, but more general about poverty and unemployment in France. Their actions are aimed at the French president specifically, not the EU.
A fact that is glossed over by silly British people trying to copy the movement by wearing yellow jackets and then... pretend they're basically the same platform. No, they're not. They're copycats, trying to leech some of that yellow vest publicity of the French cause.