NO CHANCE...
It seems to be the season for compromising democracy. We all know about dodgy elections - anything from banana republics electing `Presidents` through to the one party state that is FIFA and the endless embarrassment that is Sepp Blatter. Now we have the gentleman in the picture above, giving us a finger and a vacant expression, the vaguely familiar Belgian Eurocrat, Herman Van Rompuy, who has just been elected unopposed as President of the European Council.
Now Mr. Van Rompuy seems beset with delusions of adequacy, or maybe they`re just delusions. For example, he declared in his `acceptance speech` that the Eurozone was `on the road to recovery,` which pretty much typifies the delusions to be found in Brussels. But perhaps even more worrying was his assertion that national parliaments are now EU institutions.
"Decisions by one national parliament - be it in Germany or Ireland, in Slovakia or Portugal - are watched all over Europe. Maybe not formally speaking, but at least politically speaking, all national parliaments have become, in a way, European institutions," he declared on the eve of his `re-election.`
Now if we lived in truly democratic times, we would expect to have an election for the post of President of the European Council, with rival candidates, different political philosophies to ponder and a choice of who we considered to be the most suitable person to hold this important post. But not a bit of it. Van Rompuy has simply been handed another two years in power without an election and once again the people of Europe have been given no chance to have a voice of their own.
Maybe I shouldn`t be too surprised given the recent examples of centrally imposed rule by the EU over Greece and Italy which are but two more in a growing list of instances where democracy seems to be compromised in order to further the political dreams of the Eurocrats, however unrealistic and out of touch they may be.
Watch out for Van Rompuy and his chums - they not only sound deluded but also a bit dangerous, especially to our fading national democracies.
Now Mr. Van Rompuy seems beset with delusions of adequacy, or maybe they`re just delusions. For example, he declared in his `acceptance speech` that the Eurozone was `on the road to recovery,` which pretty much typifies the delusions to be found in Brussels. But perhaps even more worrying was his assertion that national parliaments are now EU institutions.
"Decisions by one national parliament - be it in Germany or Ireland, in Slovakia or Portugal - are watched all over Europe. Maybe not formally speaking, but at least politically speaking, all national parliaments have become, in a way, European institutions," he declared on the eve of his `re-election.`
Now if we lived in truly democratic times, we would expect to have an election for the post of President of the European Council, with rival candidates, different political philosophies to ponder and a choice of who we considered to be the most suitable person to hold this important post. But not a bit of it. Van Rompuy has simply been handed another two years in power without an election and once again the people of Europe have been given no chance to have a voice of their own.
Maybe I shouldn`t be too surprised given the recent examples of centrally imposed rule by the EU over Greece and Italy which are but two more in a growing list of instances where democracy seems to be compromised in order to further the political dreams of the Eurocrats, however unrealistic and out of touch they may be.
Watch out for Van Rompuy and his chums - they not only sound deluded but also a bit dangerous, especially to our fading national democracies.
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