Still here after Brexit: Pro-European Grassroots mobilisation a decade on
When pro-European grassroots groups emerged on the political scene in 2016, the anti-Brexit mobilisation seemed short-lived and was pictured as an epiphenomenon. Activists failed to coordinate their campaign at the national level and therefore could not hold back the Eurosceptic shift the country wa...
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| Pubblicato in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/osb, |
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| Autore principale: | |
| Natura: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Lingua: | Anglais |
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Observatoire de la société britannique
2026
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| Soggetti: | |
| Accesso online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Riassunto: | When pro-European grassroots groups emerged on the political scene in 2016, the anti-Brexit mobilisation seemed short-lived and was pictured as an epiphenomenon. Activists failed to coordinate their campaign at the national level and therefore could not hold back the Eurosceptic shift the country was making by voting to leave the EU. Even though pro-EU grassroots groups could not coalesce nationally, they still made an impact at the local level: they provided a safe space and an identity refuge for anti-Brexit activists who felt misunderstood and left behind by politicians. Based on interviews with pro-European grassroots groups in England, this article examines how pro-European mobilisation has endured under conditions of political defeat and constrained opportunity. Existing scholarship has often concluded that pro-European activism failed to articulate a compelling alternative vision of Europe. This article shifts the analytical focus from immediate outcomes to processes of endurance. It conceptualises anger not as episodic outrage but as a durable moral emotion that, when embedded in local social ties and organisational routines, can sustain long-term engagement. Localism is pictured as a key mechanism of movement resilience, showing how place-based activism functioned as a form of abeyance that preserved identities, networks, and activist capacities after the People’s Vote campaign collapsed in 2019. The article demonstrates that defending the status quo can constitute a future-oriented political practice. Pro-European grassroots activism is thus best understood not as a failed campaign, but as a durable form of civic mobilisation that continues to shape debates about Britain’s future relationship with Europe. |
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