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"This reflects a more general trend that we used to see at the national level, which is now happening at the European level" says Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, a senior research fellow with the Centre for European Reform (CER)."The general public is no longer voting for the same parties their entire lives, the links between class, education and your political affiliations is less obvious.  People are voting for different movements, very often for movements which have a one issue manifesto."

Ekspertka z think tanku Centre for European Reform Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska upatruje przyczyn tej tendencji w tym, że główne siły polityczne w Europie niewiele różnią się w kluczowych kwestiach. "To powoduje, że dla wyborców coraz bardziej atrakcyjne stają się partie radykalne, nie tylko antyeuropejskie, lecz również proeuropejskie, oferujące odważne propozycje dla przyszłości projektu europejskiego" - powiedziała PAP analityczka.

Indeed, that well-informed commentator on Europe, Charles Grant, reports in a bulletin from the Centre for European Reform entitled The Brussels View of Brexit that Michel Barnier, leader of the European commission’s negotiating team, is so exasperated, along with President Macron himself, that the French are now in the “we are better off without the British” camp. They wanted a short extension of the article 50 deadline because “the British would not work out what they wanted unless faced with the precipice of a no-deal exit”.

Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, a senior research fellow with the Centre for European Reform in Brussels, said the Austria scandal is timely ammunition for those who warn that many populist parties are deeply compromised by their ties to Mr Putin. “It emboldens those who question the populists’ good intentions and who call for greater transparency in the way these parties have been funded and investigations into their links to Russia,” she said.

Trump could insist we lower food standards—the source of panicked headlines about chlorinated chicken. Sam Lowe at the Centre for European Reform confirmed we could be asked to “remove existing bans on certain food products.” 

Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said: “Many people in Brussels expect a further extension of Article 50, well into 2020. They think that the EU will continue to extend Article 50 rather than be seen to promote no deal.”

Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, has just published a very good paper addressing exactly this question. Here is an extract.EU officials don’t trust British MPs to prevent no deal and some of them think it could happen by accident. For example, what if a Boris Johnson-type figure became prime minister in October, and he or she was determined to leave without a deal?

UK Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins is in Brussels for day two of talks with the EU, this time with his commission counterpart Sabine Weyand. Charles Grant at the CER lays out how some of the EU27’s unity is cracking but exasperation with the Brits is undiminished: “The conduct of the British political class has eroded much of the goodwill that European politicians and officials felt towards the UK. If the British wish to avoid no deal by asking for further extensions they should avoid losing the remaining goodwill that still lingers in certain capitals.”