If European integration shifts into reverse, the outcome will not be a series of happy and prosperous nation-states, living in a sort of replica of the 1950’s or 1960’s. Southern Germans would wonder whether they were not transferring too much to the north’s old industrial rustbelt; northern Italians who support the anti-EU Lega Nord in the self-styled unit of “Padania” would want to escape from the rule of Rome and the south.
如果欧洲统一之势逆转，那么产生的结果将不可能是一系列幸福繁荣的民族国家，其人民也不可能重温20世纪五六十年代的好日子。德国南部会怀疑他们是否向北部的萧条老工业区支付了太多的转移支付；支持自称帕达尼亚（Padania）的反欧盟北方联盟（Lega Nord）的意大利北方人也将试图摆脱罗马和南方的统治。