Karl Pfefferkorn has an entertaining Brussels Signal piece on the Upstairs, Downstairs nature of the EU and its faltering attempts to keep Downstairs staff on their side of the green baize door.
Downstairs are heading Upstairs: It will be a shock to the drawing room
How do you keep the help down in the scullery and well away from the drawing room where they might upset their betters? For several decades, the EU thought it had the answer: The common taxpayer would be dealt with by member state governments who would in turn remain completely committed to the great European project. Suitably filtered and vetted, the democratic will in any member state would find expression in a single seat on the European Council. The Commission would be free to realise the vision of a federal European state unhindered by hoi polloi who’d shown their unfitness for the exercise of popular sovereignty during the 1930s. A pantomime parliament was bolted onto the basic structure, but with the assurance that its MPs would remain beholden to their standing on party lists rather than actual constituents.
Despite this elegantly designed power vertical, the commoners still manage to disrupt things by sending their chosen tribunes upstairs, where they sow disquiet among the EU loyalists. Viktor Orbán has taken up residence in the parlour, oblivious to the tut-tutting of his peers. Poland has again elevated a Euro-sceptic populist to the presidency, and Romania narrowly elected a reliable EU devotee only after a heroic intervention by the Romanian supreme court.
The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that the EU has no intention of allowing voters have a say in their political future. It is also a reminder that Two Tier comes from the same mould and deserves his nickname.
Rather than launch a good faith effort to address the various grievances motivating the supporters of populist parties, the EU has embarked on a campaign of disenfranchisement that amounts to genteel authoritarianism. Brussels quietly endorsed the cancellation of the Romanian election result, leveled no criticisms as Berlin mulled an outright ban on its second largest party, and winked at the conviction of Marine LePen for financial shenanigans widely condoned in the EU Parliament. These attempts to decapitate the leadership of populist movements are coupled with a truly dystopian effort to control the information available to European voters. Social media will be monitored by “independent” NGOs funded by Commission grants, and thus likely to unleash the full force of EU law on posts mocking the EU, skeptical about the benefits of migration, or dubious of open-ended support for Ukraine. Insults directed at European leaders will of course be investigated and punished, even if fully merited, as they often are.
Rather than launch a good faith effort to address the various grievances motivating the supporters of populist parties, the EU has embarked on a campaign of disenfranchisement that amounts to genteel authoritarianism. Brussels quietly endorsed the cancellation of the Romanian election result, leveled no criticisms as Berlin mulled an outright ban on its second largest party, and winked at the conviction of Marine LePen for financial shenanigans widely condoned in the EU Parliament. These attempts to decapitate the leadership of populist movements are coupled with a truly dystopian effort to control the information available to European voters. Social media will be monitored by “independent” NGOs funded by Commission grants, and thus likely to unleash the full force of EU law on posts mocking the EU, skeptical about the benefits of migration, or dubious of open-ended support for Ukraine. Insults directed at European leaders will of course be investigated and punished, even if fully merited, as they often are.
2 comments:
*Some* people like this smooth authoritarianism though. They know their place and are happy to fawn before the masters. Which is probably why they were so against Brexit, and still are, despite all the warning signs.
DJ - I agree, there are people who are happy to fawn before the masters, especially if it is disguised fawning. It seems to be fundamental to social cohesion, but if the masters are too obviously unworthy, then we have problems.
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