Brexit and the causes of European disintegration

Brexit is an earth-shattering moment in the history of European integration. Until summer 2016, integration and enlargement followed each other. With Brexit, this process is being reversed, creating negative future expectations. This chapter enquires the following questions: Has the EU become irreparable? Is the disintegration of Yugoslavia being repeated on the scale of the EU? Identity politics and the two-level game do not suffice to explain why anti-EU and anti-immigration sentiments were growing stronger, why UKIP was gaining in popularity and why 52% of the active voters eventually preferred "Leave" in June 2016. The politico-economic elite has been wavering regarding nationalism and the EU and global governance, perhaps partly in response to a slight shift among political forces toward social democratic multilateralism. National-populist movements or parties may, however, lose part of their purpose, as UKIP did after the 2016 referendum.