If Theresa May had been able to concentrate on negotiating with the European Union instead of with various factions of her own Conservative Party, she might have gained some insight into what really troubles the EU’s leaders. Rather than Brexit, it is the rise of right-wing anti-immigrant populist parties in central and southern Europe. The significance of Brexit is that it encourages such populist politicians to blame the EU for many of the ills that beset them, and makes them look less inevitable: they too could leave. The populism is not just a revolt against liberal elites in their own countries, therefore, but against Brussels elites too.