How Brexit killed the concept of an EU exit

When Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, Brussels feared that it could trigger a wave of copy-cat EU exits, fracturing the unity of a bloc already under strain from the 2015 migration crisis and fights over the future of the Euro.

Initially, it seemed like Brexit was the loose thread that could unravel Europe, but two years on, rather than encouraging other countries to seek to leave, Brexit is having the opposite effect.

In the run up to the European elections, right-wing populist movements from countries across Europe that once advocated quitting the EU are now almost all seeking to reform from within by creating a new alliance of anti-federalist, Eurosceptic parties.

From Marine Le Pen’s…