Birthplace of democracy abandons democracy; electorates yawn

Birthplace of democracy abandons democracy; electorates yawn

Posted on November 20th, 2009 by Daniel Kalder

This Thursday the European Union elected its first president — well, sort of. Naturally the peoples of the 27 state bloc were not permitted to vote. They didn’t even know who the candidates were. Leaders decided to spare their electorates the trouble by making the choice for them behind closed doors. After early reports that Tony Blair might win, it turned out that France and Germany were opposed to giving him yet another platform to strut about on, and he quickly faded from view. With 27 sets of national interests to balance, the final candidates were always going to be selected from the most bland and inoffensive countries in the bloc. Shortly before Thursday reports began to circulate that some Belgian was the front runner, although he refused to confirm that he was even in the race. Then there was a guy from Luxemburg who some analysts thought might win, even though Luxemburg isn’t a real country. And there was also a Dutchman involved.

Apparently the Belgian won. What he will do, who he is, few people know, or care.

Of course there was a good reason why the people of Europe were not permitted to vote for their very first president – they might have made the wrong decision. After all, France and Holland had already rejected the proposed European Constitution that created the post of president in referenda held years ago, which is why the ‘Constitution’ was renamed the ‘Lisbon Treaty’ — so that it could be voted into law by national parliaments without having to bother with plebiscites. Knowing Britons would reject the treaty in a popular vote Gordon Brown reneged on his promise to give a referendum and signed it into law. Only the Irish held a vote on the rebranded constitution and they rejected it; thus they were forced to vote again so that they could make the ‘right’ decision.

What would you say if a president lost a vote on amending the constitution to his benefit and then held another one and another one until he got the result he wanted — an end to term limits say, or the right to bring in Canadian judges to overrule decisions made in the Supreme Court? In self-righteous, civilized Europe, where democracy was invented, this ‘creative’ approach to determining the people’s will is par for the course. And nobody does anything. In the UK — where I come from — people grumble, and ridicule the system — but then they go back to sleep. The next day they wake up and another ‘directive’ has been issued by a shadowy, unelected committee, another power given away. Apparently in some countries people are allegedly quite excited by this new experiment in anti-democratic, ultra-bureaucratic corporatist government.

Can you imagine this happening in America? I can’t. The electorate would explode with rage, and rightly so. So in the spirit of Sean Cunningham’s post earlier this week, let me give you another reason to feel better about your government: you can kick it out. For the citizens of the EU that fundamental — and simple — right just got a whole lot more complicated.

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Daniel Kalder

Daniel Kalder is an author and journalist originally from Scotland, who currently resides in Texas after a ten year stint in the former USSR. Visit him online at www.danielkalder.com