On June 24, 2016, at the headquarters of the National Front in Nanterre, France, Marine Le Pen hosted an impromptu press conference to celebrate the result of Britain’s referendum on EU membership. “What no one had envisaged a few months ago is now a reality that must be acknowledged by all: Yes, it is possible to leave the European Union,” she said. A poster of two fists, breaking free of their heavy chains, plastered the wall behind her. “Et Maintenant La France!” the caption read: And now France.

As Le Pen spoke, fellow travelers across Europe took to Twitter to express their euphoria. “All I want to say: THANK! YOU!! #NigelFarage For #Brexit and #Independenceday,” wrote Beatrix von Storch, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany. “Hurray for the British! Now it is our turn. Time for a Dutch referendum! #ByeByeEU,” wrote Geert Wilders of the Dutch Party for Freedom.

“The U.K. has just initiated a movement that will not stop,” Le Pen concluded in her speech. “The movement towards the end of the EU as we know it has begun.”

Since the Brexit referendum, disintegration has been the prevailing anxiety among the establishment leaders of European politics. Britain’s departure from the EU, these figures feared, would spark contagion, and Europe would suffer through several more portmanteau referendums—Frexit, Grexit, Auxit, and so on. As recently as May 2018, Italy’s Five Start Movement was campaigning on the promise of a eurozone referendum. “I want the Italian people to express themselves,” said Beppe Grillo, the party’s co-founder. “Should we leave Europe or not?” Five Star skyrocketed to 32.7 percent of the vote in that year’s general election.

But in the run-up to this week’s European Parliament elections, the euphoric calls for exit have all but gone silent. The manifesto for Le Pen’s National Rally party—the newest incarnation of the old National Front—contains no reference to a referendum on EU membership. Alternative for Germany has similarly backed away from its former pledge to “Dexit,” threatening to leave the EU only if its demands are not met “in a timely manner.” Instead, Europe’s far right is campaigning vigorously for seats in the next European Parliament under the banner of its newest coalition, Europe of Nations and Freedom, hoping to take the movement’s anti-Islam and anti-immigrant platform to the heart of the EU.