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It’s always fun (and eye-catching) to shout “democracy, democracy” in front of the TV cameras – especially about Europe. In the last months, Ursula von der Leyen has been presented by many as an illegitimate undemocratic president of the European Commission. The symbol of backdoor deals, manipulation of voters, and deeply undemocratic Europe. Alas, in this age of soundbites, this one is false. The spitzenkandidaten concept (invented when the Lisbon Treaty entered into force) is not so democratic. Moreover, it does not conform to the EU Treaties.

Continuer la lecture de « Mrs Von Der Leyen is a very democratic europen president, and the spitzenkandidaten simply do not conform to the present EU treaties »

To simple minds four things were quite clear after the 2016 Brexit referendum. Legally, dismantling such a huge amount of legal connections could only be done progressively. This was anyway required by Article 50 TFEU, which distinguished clearly the withdrawal agreement to settle the problems of the past and the posterior agreement about the future relationship. Politically, Brexit had to be implemented in one way or another, otherwise cries of conspiracy, deep state, and perversion of democracy would multiply. However, the sharp referendum result (52/48) could only legitimize the mildest sort of Brexit. This is what had to be prepared. Naturally, all governments immediately began to …. deny those things.

Continuer la lecture de « The chaos of no exit for Brexit is the price of political gluttony on all sides »