Europe is cur­rent­ly bound to the North by pop­ulism and to the south by refugees drowned by the sea, to the East by Putin’s tanks, to the West by the Trump Wall.

In the past, by war, in the future with Brex­it. Today, Europe is alone more than ever, but it’s cit­i­zens do not know it.

Europe is, how­ev­er, for that rea­son, the best solu­tion and we do not know how to explain that our cit­i­zens.

Glob­al­i­sa­tion teach­es us that today Europe is inevitable, there is no alter­na­tive. But Brex­it also tells us that Europe is reversible, that you can walk back­wards in his­to­ry, even though, out­side Europe, it is very cold.

Brex­it is the most self­ish deci­sion ever made since Win­ston Churchill saved Europe with the blood, sweat and tears of the Eng­lish.

Say­ing Brex­it is the most insid­i­ous way of say­ing good­bye.

Europe is not a mar­ket, it is the will to live togeth­er. Leav­ing Europe is not leav­ing a mar­ket, it is leav­ing shared dreams.

We can have a com­mon mar­ket, but if we do not have com­mon dreams, we have noth­ing. Europe is the peace that came after the dis­as­ter of war.

Europe is the par­don between French and Ger­mans.

Europe is the return to free­dom of Greece, Spain and Por­tu­gal.

Europe is the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Europe is the end of com­mu­nism.

Europe is the wel­fare state, it is democ­ra­cy.

Europe is fun­da­men­tal rights.

Can we live with­out all this? Can we give this all up? For a mar­ket we are going to leave all that behind?

Este­ban González Pons, Euro­pean Par­lia­ment Mem­ber from Spain