If we cancel Brexit we can help reset the European socialist dream

Nowadays, the European Union is rightly condemned by the left for its market emphasis and its neo-liberal policies. But this is not a reason to leave the European Union, it is a reason to stay, especially with the far-right rising again

It is bizarre to think that a substantial proportion of MPs, including Theresa May, would prefer no deal to holding European elections.

But as the European Council made clear, if Article 50 is revoked or extended for a long period, this would mean holding them. If the UK does participate, the polls suggest that Labour will do well, and this could affect the political balance of the European Parliament, helping to stem the rise of right-wing populists.

These elections will be the first in which a pan-European debate about the kind of Europe people want is likely to displace national debates. This is partly a consequence of Brexit. The far-right has a continent-wide strategy, and the rise of the populist right has also led other parties to put more emphasis on European reform.

The elections therefore represent an opportunity for a democratic debate about the nature of the European Union – something that has been painfully absent in the parochial Brexit debate.

The Party of European Socialists (PES), which represents socialist and social democratic parties in the European Parliament, recently published a radical manifesto for the European elections, greatly influenced by the British Labour Party.

It demands “European solidarity for the Many not the Few”, “an end to austerity policies”, a “green transition”, a digital revolution, tax justice, Europe-wide unemployment insurance and more. It includes far-reaching proposals for combating climate change, as well as inequality and poverty. It also calls for a “feminist Europe”.

The PES manifesto represents a return to the roots of the European project.

During the Second World War, those engaged in the European resistance dreamed of a united socialist Europe. One of the founding documents of the European Union is the Ventotone Manifesto drawn up in 1943 by Altiero Spinelli, Eugenio Corlorni and Ursula Hirschman, who were interned by Mussolini on the island of Ventotene. It was adopted by resistance leaders across Europe. The manifesto called for a break with Europe’s past through the restructuring of politics and social transformation.

Nowadays, the European Union is rightly condemned by the left for its market emphasis and its neo-liberal policies. But this is not a reason to leave the European Union, it is a reason to stay in to change it.

Britain, after all, is the European country that probably bears the most responsibility for the neo-liberal character of today’s EU, beginning with Margaret Thatcher’s enthusiasm for the single market. Neo-liberalism has gone much further in Britain than any other country. A Britain outside Europe, dominated by Brexit style politics, is likely to be even more committed to a deregulatory neo-liberal free for all.

The overwhelming majority of Labour members favour a strategy of remain and transform. Jeremy Corbyn has supported a public vote but he continues to talk of a better Brexit deal – something that sits rather uneasily with the traditions of the Labour Party. In 1975, the left including Jeremy Corbyn and Tony Benn, voted against joining Europe because they were against the Common Market, although many of them professed support for a socialist Europe.

Now Jeremy Corbyn seems to favour the most neo-liberal bit of the European Union, the customs union but not democratic participation in European institutions and not freedom of movement.

There is something profoundly undemocratic about British politics at the moment. The Prime Minister feels she can bring her deal back to parliament for as many times as it takes to get the answer she wants. And yet she claims it is undemocratic to hold a public vote.

“The people will lose trust in politics,” she said in her Downing Street address last week. But why are the people likely to trust a Prime Minister whose primary tactic to get MPs on board with her deal is bullying and name-calling, and refusing to give the people a say?

In a democracy we are supposed to change our minds through a process of continuous debate and deliberation.

The Speaker of the House of Commons vetoed the third meaningful vote on the grounds that the substance had not changed. But in the case of Brexit as a whole and the principle of a public vote, the substance has changed. No-one knew what Brexit meant in concrete terms when they voted in the 2016 referendum. So why is it undemocratic to vote on Theresa May’s specific version of Brexit?

This matters, not just for us in Britain or in Europe more widely, it also matters for the world. The European Union is surrounded by proto-fascist states – Russia, Turkey and Trump’s America – that are behaving in very dangerous ways, whether we are talking about saving the planet, preventing violence or preserving human rights and development.

The young people protesting climate change are showing the way. We have a responsibility to contribute to building a Europe that could help us deal with these dangers.