Portents

   News items:
-- The European Union is in "disrepute across much of Europe," according to a Pew Research report.
-- In the United Kingdom, the right-wing Independence Party, which favors England for the English and wants to restrict immigration, has gained a significant local election victory.
-- In Hungary, there is growing antipathy toward Jews and Roma (gypsies).
-- In Germany, Turkish immigrants continue to face discrimination.
-- Scotland may opt out of the EU and the euro as it moves toward independence from England.
-- France is facing recession.

   The "prolonged economic crisis" in Europe, says the Pew report, is "pulling European public opinion apart," with the southern members -- Spain, Italy and Greece -- "becoming ever more estranged" from the rest.
   All of this is reflected in a public opinion poll, released Monday (May 13), showing a favorability drop of 15 percentage points in just one year, from 60 percent approval of the EU in 2012 to 45 percent in 2013.
   In addition, there is growing suspicion -- if not fear -- of German dominance of what started as the European Economic Community and has grown over the years to developing tendencies toward banking and political union.
   So the question becomes: Can the union stand the stress?

   Our Dublin correspondent reports that "the bigger economies still have the belief that they can throw their weight around," preventing smaller nations such as Ireland offering tax breaks to corporations that relocate. And with their greater flexibility, the smaller nations will be better able to deal with change, since they are already used to conforming to requirements of larger European banking systems.

   In the meantime, the UK is not going to join the euro zone and may even leave the EU. Scotland may withdraw from the UK and there have been calls within Scotland for the formation of a common Sterling area.
   All in all, the portents are not good, as recessionary forces roll through Europe and threaten to untie the bonds that brought large measures of economic union throughout much of the continent.

   Such turmoil may even bring a return of isolationist sentiments to America. It wouldn't be the first time that some folk thought they could rely on the wide waves of the Atlantic Ocean to insulate America from European problems.