‘Migrant crisis could trigger Soviet Union fall scenario for EU’

The migrant crisis is going to fracture the EU, says journalist Bryan MacDonald. Just like the USSR collapsed when its biggest constituent country, Russia, got tired of the union idea, the same could happen to the EU if Germany turns against it, he adds.

Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said on Monday that the European Union could collapse due to the refugee crisis. This viewpoint is shared by a number of other EU politicians.

RT: Is Luxembourg's Foreign Minister exaggerating when he says the EU might dissolve in only a few months? How high are the chances?

LISTEN MORE:

Bryan MacDonald: No, he is not. I think what he is saying is hardly surprising… As we saw at the dissolution of the Soviet Union and other unions of many states in the late 80s and 90s, when these things tend to break up, it happens very quickly. And it is often comes from something that you don’t suspect. I think the refugee crisis has just thrown more petrol on the fire that has been burning in Europe over the last couple of years. There is massive detachment between the elite who run the continent and the citizens of the continent. And at the time when there is a homeless crisis in some countries, like here in Ireland, when there are severe unemployment problems and severe economic problems in other states, to be admitting hundreds of thousands of people if not millions no matter how deserving they are - and most of them are very deserving – it is not going to go down very well. Of course, it is going to fracture the union. We’ve seen this already in southeastern Europe, in the Balkans. We see it now spreading into Germany. That is the big worry. Just as the Soviet Union began to break up when the biggest constituent country, Russia, began to tire of the idea - that is what could happen to the EU if the Germans began turning against the very idea of further union.