No kidding:
The European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator claimed that Britain’s torturous exit from the EU had cowed populist politicians across Europe.
Mr Verhofstadt, who supports the creation of a United States of Europe, told the Ouest France newspaper, “Fortunately, we have Brexit. It illustrates the populist wave, but it has also provoked a resurrection of attachment to the EU within public opinion.”
"We see the difficulties, the chaos created by Great Britain’s exit,” the former prime minister of Belgium said, "“Even the populists do not dare to say that they want to leave the EU."
The European Union has given Britain Hell in negotiating an exit. The EU had an incentive not to make it easy, as I noted:
To avoid encouraging others in the EU who might think leaving is a good idea, I often get the impression that the EU leadership is far more willing to be harsh with Britain out of anger over their Brexit vote than they are willing to be harsh with Russia over their invasion of Ukraine.
And now, after the EU made the process as difficult as possible, they say the difficult process has convinced other EU states to shut up and row faster to ever closer union--a union close enough to prevent any subject province from escaping short of armed rebellion.
