European Union officials and their supporters are always warning that “Democracy in Europe is under threat.” They are right about that. But the real threat to democracy in Europe comes from the EU bureaucracy itself.
That’s why The European Conservative is launching our new column, Democracy Watch, to report on and intervene in the intensifying battle for democracy in Europe.
The coming elections in Poland and the Netherlands, and the 2024 elections to the European Parliament, will focus on divisive issues from mass migration to the ‘Green transition.’
But behind all these big issues there is a bigger, unspoken question: Who rules? Who is to decide the future of Europe? Will it be the federal EU elites, or national governments? The peoples of Europe, or the technocrats of Brussels and the central bankers of Frankfurt?
The EU’s idea of ‘democracy’ is that member states vote to do as they are told by Brussels. If not, they can expect to be punished. As European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned before last year’s Italian elections, if a “democratic government is willing to work with us,” things will be fine. But, “If things go in a difficult direction, I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland, we have the tools.”
In other words, if you vote in the wrong direction—as Italians did by electing Giorgia Meloni prime minister—you are no longer considered democratic in Brussels. And you can expect to be subjected to the same ‘tools’—legal blackmail dressed up as the Rule of Law—as Hungary and Poland, whose democratically-elected conservative governments have both been denied billions in EU funding because they do not follow Brussels’ orders on migration or family policy.
Look at the big speech delivered by Dubravka Šuica, vice-president of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography, at the European Partnership for Democracy Conference in Brussels in June 2023. It was full of familiar airy talk about democratic values and engaging with the citizenry. But then the mask slipped, as she spelt out what sort of engagement the Commission feels Europe’s citizens need from Brussels:
And it is up to us decision- and policy-makers to ensure that they can vote for the kind of representative they really want. As opposed to voting for a populist candidate offering an easy alternative. Or using a vote to object to the policies of the day!
In other words, the Commission vice-president for democracy believes that her job is to instruct the people about ‘what they really want’, and to stop them voting for populist parties or protesting against EU policies. Some of us might have naively imagined that democracy is about freedom of choice. But the Brussels elites believe they know what’s best for the rest of Europe.
The EU is turning the ‘defence of democratic values’ into a weapon to use against elected national governments. To do so, Brussels has had to turn the meaning of democracy on its head. The original Ancient Greek word, demokratia, symbolised the union of the demos—the people—and kratos—power or control. (Even though women and slaves were excluded from voting.) The modern EU elites, like every oligarchy since Ancient Athens, seeks to separate those two elements and keep the people as far from power as possible.
The division between power and the people is now visible in every European debate. There is a growing reality gap between the worthy things that powerful EU elites say, and the bad news that it means in practice for millions of everyday Europeans. It is high time that these high-handed authorities faced a democratic reckoning.
Unsustainable development
Take the Green Deal debate. Everybody is supposed to nod along in support of the EU’s aims of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘Net Carbon Zero.’ After all, who would want to be seen as supporting something called ‘unsustainable development’? Yet it is becoming clear that, once fully implemented, these policies would mean millions of Europeans are left unable to drive a car, heat their homes, or afford to eat meat.
There is a growing popular backlash against the consequences of the EU’s Green Deal, among everybody from farmers to suburban car drivers. The coming general election in the Netherlands is now a frontline in this battle. It pitches a left-green alliance, led by the EU’s former ‘Green Pope’ Frans Timmermans, against populist parties such as the farmers’ BBB movement, which burst onto the scene by winning the upper house elections earlier this year. The outcome could have consequences far beyond the Netherlands.
Compulsory solidarity
Or take the divisions over European migration policy. The EU’s proposed new pact demands that member states each take their ‘share’ of the migrants flowing into Europe. That might sound like a fair and equitable deal. Unless of course any member state insists on their right to be a nation state, and decide who they allow to cross their national borders and settle in their country. Then they will be heavily fined by Brussels for every migrant they refuse to entertain. This EU policy has bizarrely been called ‘compulsory solidarity’—a contradiction in terms, which sounds like being told that you must love your neighbour by a policeman waving a baton.
Popular resistance to the EU’s migration policy has so far been strongest in central and eastern Europe. The division is starkest in Poland, where October’s general election will pit the ruling conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) and other populist groups against the pro-Brussels Civic Alliance fronted by Donald Tusk, former President of the European Council.
The Polish government has raised the temperature further by announcing a four-question national referendum, to be held on October 15th, the same day as the general election. The key question will ask Polish voters: “Do you support the admission of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa, in accordance with the forced relocation mechanism imposed by the European bureaucracy?” It could hardly have been better loaded to send a jolt of fear through Brussels.
Even before the question was announced, however, EU officials were worried by the very idea of such a referendum. Their fear and loathing of the demos means they do not think voters should be trusted to take democratic decisions on major European issues. After all, the EU elites’ record in such referenda is poor. They lost the 2005 referenda on the proposed EU Constitution in France and the Netherlands; in Ireland, they lost the only referendum held on the 2008 Lisbon Treaty (after which Brussels bullied the Irish into staging a re-run and voting the ‘right’ way); they lost the 2015 referendum on the harsh economic bailout package for Greece (after which they squeezed the Greek government to accept even harsher conditions anyway); and of course they lost the 2016 Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom.
If the EU officials and bankers had their way, there would never be another risky referendum held on any big European policies. All major decisions would be made behind closed doors, by those who know better, and not left to the whims of the ignorant ‘plebs’ who are ridiculously allowed to vote in a referendum/plebiscite.
Scare tactics
The widening divide between the EU elites and everyday Europeans has sparked a series of populist revolts at the polls, everywhere from Germany, France and Italy to the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland. Each time such a new movement falters, the mainstream media is quick to breathe a sigh of relief and declare the ‘death of populism.’ Yet each time, the populist wave breaks through again. Because it is not really about the specific policies of novice and sometimes-incoherent parties. It is about a broader popular revolt against unrepresentative power.
With the European Elections of 2024 on the horizon, the nervous Brussels elites are set to step up their war on populist parties. They have tried to turn ‘populism’ into a dirty word for popular democracy. We should not be scared off by such tactics. The future of democracy in Europe is in the balance, and it is time to take sides.
Some conservatives, of course, have long had a difficult relationship with the idea of mass democracy. We are all familiar with Edmund Burke’s disdain for rule by “the swinish multitude.” Today, however, it is the woke identarian Left and the technocrats who sneer at the masses as ignorant pigs—or “gammon,” as they call Brexit voters in the UK.
The twin principles
By contrast there are both principled and practical reasons for conservatives to embrace democracy fully. The twin principles of national sovereignty and democracy should be at the centre of any attempt to defend the values of European civilisation in the modern world.
And in practical terms, the democratic arena is one battlefield where we can win. The woke culture warriors have taken over many of the powerful institutions of European and Western society. There seems to be no quick way to take back control of, say, the university campuses or the corporate boardrooms. Yet despite their concerted efforts to diminish democracy, they still cannot fix every election result. Democracy gives conservatives their best chance of success—by making clear that they are on the side of the demos, the peoples of Europe, against the unaccountable kratos of the powerful Brussels elites.
To end on a personal note: four years ago, during the last elections to the European Parliament, I was part of a very small team running the campaign for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party from a cramped room above a London shop. Less than six weeks after the party was launched, we won those elections, gaining more votes than the Conservative and Labour parties combined and becoming the biggest single party in the European Parliament. Those results would force the Tories to change leadership and ‘get Brexit done.’ A reminder that, even in boring old British politics where nothing seems to change, popular democracy can suddenly burst through these days.
As the question of ‘Who rules?’ looms over every debate in the run up to the coming elections, our Democracy Watch column will be following the battles. Watch this space.
The Big Question Behind Every Euro Election: Who Rules?
European Union officials and their supporters are always warning that “Democracy in Europe is under threat.” They are right about that. But the real threat to democracy in Europe comes from the EU bureaucracy itself.
That’s why The European Conservative is launching our new column, Democracy Watch, to report on and intervene in the intensifying battle for democracy in Europe.
The coming elections in Poland and the Netherlands, and the 2024 elections to the European Parliament, will focus on divisive issues from mass migration to the ‘Green transition.’
But behind all these big issues there is a bigger, unspoken question: Who rules? Who is to decide the future of Europe? Will it be the federal EU elites, or national governments? The peoples of Europe, or the technocrats of Brussels and the central bankers of Frankfurt?
The EU’s idea of ‘democracy’ is that member states vote to do as they are told by Brussels. If not, they can expect to be punished. As European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned before last year’s Italian elections, if a “democratic government is willing to work with us,” things will be fine. But, “If things go in a difficult direction, I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland, we have the tools.”
In other words, if you vote in the wrong direction—as Italians did by electing Giorgia Meloni prime minister—you are no longer considered democratic in Brussels. And you can expect to be subjected to the same ‘tools’—legal blackmail dressed up as the Rule of Law—as Hungary and Poland, whose democratically-elected conservative governments have both been denied billions in EU funding because they do not follow Brussels’ orders on migration or family policy.
Look at the big speech delivered by Dubravka Šuica, vice-president of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography, at the European Partnership for Democracy Conference in Brussels in June 2023. It was full of familiar airy talk about democratic values and engaging with the citizenry. But then the mask slipped, as she spelt out what sort of engagement the Commission feels Europe’s citizens need from Brussels:
In other words, the Commission vice-president for democracy believes that her job is to instruct the people about ‘what they really want’, and to stop them voting for populist parties or protesting against EU policies. Some of us might have naively imagined that democracy is about freedom of choice. But the Brussels elites believe they know what’s best for the rest of Europe.
The EU is turning the ‘defence of democratic values’ into a weapon to use against elected national governments. To do so, Brussels has had to turn the meaning of democracy on its head. The original Ancient Greek word, demokratia, symbolised the union of the demos—the people—and kratos—power or control. (Even though women and slaves were excluded from voting.) The modern EU elites, like every oligarchy since Ancient Athens, seeks to separate those two elements and keep the people as far from power as possible.
The division between power and the people is now visible in every European debate. There is a growing reality gap between the worthy things that powerful EU elites say, and the bad news that it means in practice for millions of everyday Europeans. It is high time that these high-handed authorities faced a democratic reckoning.
Unsustainable development
Take the Green Deal debate. Everybody is supposed to nod along in support of the EU’s aims of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘Net Carbon Zero.’ After all, who would want to be seen as supporting something called ‘unsustainable development’? Yet it is becoming clear that, once fully implemented, these policies would mean millions of Europeans are left unable to drive a car, heat their homes, or afford to eat meat.
There is a growing popular backlash against the consequences of the EU’s Green Deal, among everybody from farmers to suburban car drivers. The coming general election in the Netherlands is now a frontline in this battle. It pitches a left-green alliance, led by the EU’s former ‘Green Pope’ Frans Timmermans, against populist parties such as the farmers’ BBB movement, which burst onto the scene by winning the upper house elections earlier this year. The outcome could have consequences far beyond the Netherlands.
Compulsory solidarity
Or take the divisions over European migration policy. The EU’s proposed new pact demands that member states each take their ‘share’ of the migrants flowing into Europe. That might sound like a fair and equitable deal. Unless of course any member state insists on their right to be a nation state, and decide who they allow to cross their national borders and settle in their country. Then they will be heavily fined by Brussels for every migrant they refuse to entertain. This EU policy has bizarrely been called ‘compulsory solidarity’—a contradiction in terms, which sounds like being told that you must love your neighbour by a policeman waving a baton.
Popular resistance to the EU’s migration policy has so far been strongest in central and eastern Europe. The division is starkest in Poland, where October’s general election will pit the ruling conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) and other populist groups against the pro-Brussels Civic Alliance fronted by Donald Tusk, former President of the European Council.
The Polish government has raised the temperature further by announcing a four-question national referendum, to be held on October 15th, the same day as the general election. The key question will ask Polish voters: “Do you support the admission of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa, in accordance with the forced relocation mechanism imposed by the European bureaucracy?” It could hardly have been better loaded to send a jolt of fear through Brussels.
Even before the question was announced, however, EU officials were worried by the very idea of such a referendum. Their fear and loathing of the demos means they do not think voters should be trusted to take democratic decisions on major European issues. After all, the EU elites’ record in such referenda is poor. They lost the 2005 referenda on the proposed EU Constitution in France and the Netherlands; in Ireland, they lost the only referendum held on the 2008 Lisbon Treaty (after which Brussels bullied the Irish into staging a re-run and voting the ‘right’ way); they lost the 2015 referendum on the harsh economic bailout package for Greece (after which they squeezed the Greek government to accept even harsher conditions anyway); and of course they lost the 2016 Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom.
If the EU officials and bankers had their way, there would never be another risky referendum held on any big European policies. All major decisions would be made behind closed doors, by those who know better, and not left to the whims of the ignorant ‘plebs’ who are ridiculously allowed to vote in a referendum/plebiscite.
Scare tactics
The widening divide between the EU elites and everyday Europeans has sparked a series of populist revolts at the polls, everywhere from Germany, France and Italy to the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland. Each time such a new movement falters, the mainstream media is quick to breathe a sigh of relief and declare the ‘death of populism.’ Yet each time, the populist wave breaks through again. Because it is not really about the specific policies of novice and sometimes-incoherent parties. It is about a broader popular revolt against unrepresentative power.
With the European Elections of 2024 on the horizon, the nervous Brussels elites are set to step up their war on populist parties. They have tried to turn ‘populism’ into a dirty word for popular democracy. We should not be scared off by such tactics. The future of democracy in Europe is in the balance, and it is time to take sides.
Some conservatives, of course, have long had a difficult relationship with the idea of mass democracy. We are all familiar with Edmund Burke’s disdain for rule by “the swinish multitude.” Today, however, it is the woke identarian Left and the technocrats who sneer at the masses as ignorant pigs—or “gammon,” as they call Brexit voters in the UK.
The twin principles
By contrast there are both principled and practical reasons for conservatives to embrace democracy fully. The twin principles of national sovereignty and democracy should be at the centre of any attempt to defend the values of European civilisation in the modern world.
And in practical terms, the democratic arena is one battlefield where we can win. The woke culture warriors have taken over many of the powerful institutions of European and Western society. There seems to be no quick way to take back control of, say, the university campuses or the corporate boardrooms. Yet despite their concerted efforts to diminish democracy, they still cannot fix every election result. Democracy gives conservatives their best chance of success—by making clear that they are on the side of the demos, the peoples of Europe, against the unaccountable kratos of the powerful Brussels elites.
To end on a personal note: four years ago, during the last elections to the European Parliament, I was part of a very small team running the campaign for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party from a cramped room above a London shop. Less than six weeks after the party was launched, we won those elections, gaining more votes than the Conservative and Labour parties combined and becoming the biggest single party in the European Parliament. Those results would force the Tories to change leadership and ‘get Brexit done.’ A reminder that, even in boring old British politics where nothing seems to change, popular democracy can suddenly burst through these days.
As the question of ‘Who rules?’ looms over every debate in the run up to the coming elections, our Democracy Watch column will be following the battles. Watch this space.
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