Just look up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg_Leaks, and who got to be president of the European Commission for many years.

Or what Paul Krugman (and Matthew Yglesias) surmised: https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/09/greece-the-tie-... ; when Greece got a bunch of left "radicalists" into power, it got the elite to bully mode, because usually (prime) ministers could be offered cushy European gigs as long as they do what the "elite" wants, but the non-tie-wearing Greeks actually wanted to save their population.

The book "Adults in the Room" by Yanis Varoufakis is also an eye opener...