What is no longer unthinkable is a breakup of the European Union itself – even its most ardent supporters fear the EU will meet an unhappy end. The grand experiment called the European Union relied on the century-old socialist notion that nationalism and nation states are retrograde historical relics while internationalism is noble. If so, this noble experiment is in for a fall. Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker explained it well this week, in warning that nationalism is alive and well in Europe, despite the best efforts of Europe’s elites to extinguish it. “That means what was history, and what we thought we had definitely buried, it resurges fast,” he said. “European integration remains a highly fragile undertaking. One has to deal carefully with European sentiments and not think history is history. No, no — history is present.” And the European Union may be past.