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The withdrawal of the United Kingdom will probably keep us Europeans busy for longer than everyone originally thought; meanwhile, even the optimistic European federalists will be happy when the separation is finally completed. Our rationale behind this is the hope that the resulting consequences will make the citizens of the Union aware of how dangerous it is to elect politicians who are completely incompetent, both humanely and professionally.
The example of the United States is also used to show us all the serious consequences this has, not only for our own country, but in this case for the entire world. It also clearly shows that democracies can only be destroyed from within. In the case of the United States, we can be pretty sure that after a few years of self-imposed isolation, they will make a renewed commitment to a democratic and free world.
Unfortunately, we Europeans cannot be quite so sure of ourselves, because the European Union was not born of its own accord and to this day lives almost exclusively on the promise of providing comprehensive prosperity for everyone. In doing so, most Union citizens have completely forgotten or completely repressed that Europe can only achieve this if the people, the individual peoples and regions of Europe succeed in uniting as efficiently as possible and, moreover, with other regions of the world in peaceful cooperation and friendly - not heterotrophic - To live in associations - and this up to a world union.
The opposite of this European idea is the nationalistic pettiness of egoists who cannot see that their own short-term advantages mean the downfall for everyone in the medium to long term. Our English fellow Europeans are currently demonstrating this as an example, and the rest of us are not a whit better! We Germans only love Europe when our neighbors buy and pay from us, guarantee the cheapest possible vacations and otherwise keep the problems of this world off our backs for as long as possible.
We Europeans have let a good 70 years pass without actually taking on the known challenges. Not only climate change, but also the overexploitation of nature and environmental destruction, as well as the economic and social imbalance in the world, will cause us all far more problems than most of us think. Overall, population migration will increase sharply and as a result, 95% of the world's population will not be too worried about the well-being of 5% of Europeans.
Other regions of the world, e.g. B. China, have taken advantage of our inaction and, much better organized and, above all, with united forces, have begun to secure not only the world's resources, but also the technologies, patents and core industries. Added to this is the fact that, with well over a billion people, they represent contemporary market power.
But China, India and the USA will also have to face the global challenges. Just 70 years ago, the entire world was certain that this could only be achieved by joining forces.
However, the majority of us Europeans apparently now believe that renationalisation, racism, border controls and the purchase of 50 more tanks are the more promising solution. I am absolutely certain that governments that spread such nonsense are at the heart of all problems - and we elected them!
But all the lamentation is of no help, we European federalists must remain undeterred in our cause and continue to try to convince our fellow citizens, especially the Europeans among them, of this only path that promises success. At least we federalists can live afterwards with the good conscience that we tried to the last.
The EUROPA-UNION Heilbronn is part of the worldwide federalist movement and since 1946 has also been a member of the European federalists and thus also of the European movement. Our roots can be traced back to ancient times, but we only emerged in the fight against National Socialism, which brought the entire world to the brink of collapse. Our founding fathers came out of the Christian and democratic resistance during the darkest years of our history to date.
To date, we have a good 25 members across Europe and have thus been able to maintain our post-war membership numbers, even if we initially hoped to become a powerful citizens' movement and to be able to anchor the European idea among all our fellow citizens.
In the city and district of Heilbronn we have a good 220 European Federalists and, with almost 0,05% of the population, we are a small but very active association of people with strong democratic roots.
"The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."
Bertrand Russell, Mortals and Others: American Essays 1931-1935 (2009: 203)
