I have no doubt that some of those now steering the EU in the direction of closer integration genuinely believe that a strengthened European Union is essential to the maintenance of peace in the European heartland. I also have no doubt that some of those people are sane, if not quite rational.

But here, via Reuters, is yet another example of what that integration, when pushed beyond economic logic and without genuine democratic consent has wrought:

Conservative rebel Panos Kammenos has stormed out of nowhere to torpedo his old party’s chances of winning outright victory in Sunday’s Greek election and put himself in a strong position to be a power broker after the vote.
Kammenos splintered from the main conservative party New Democracy in February when he launched the Independent Greeks movement. It is riding a wave of popular discontent against austerity policies demanded by international lenders.
The Independent Greeks have soared to 11 percent in opinion polls, upsetting the traditional balance of Greek politics and probably forcing conservative New Democracy to seek coalition partners even if it wins the largest slice of Sunday’s vote, as expected.
A rotund, outspoken and short-tempered career politician who will turn 47 next week, Kammenos is a formidable campaigner known for his fiery anti-German rhetoric and take-no-prisoners approach to opponents…
Kammenos quit New Democracy in November last year, when its leader Antonis Samaras stopped opposing the country’s EU/IMF bailout and joined the ruling Socialists in a coalition government under technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos…
He says the bailout is destroying Greece’s sovereignty, condemning it to become a powerless province in a “federalist” Europe he describes as a “Fourth Reich” dominated by Germany.
To drive the point home, he launched his party from the remote village of Distomo, where German occupation forces killed more than 200 civilians in the Second World War. . .