MEPs voted in favor of the principle of transnational lists in the next European elections on Tuesday 3 May. This was a further step in the implementation of what can be called (not to be too shocking) a post-democratic society.
For a few years now, “thanks” to François Mitterrand (Maastricht Treaty), Nicolas Sarkozy (Treaty of Lisbon) and the entire French political class, the people have not been able to decide anything at all, although they still have the right to vote.
The timetable imposed on the peoples was laid down once and for all in the text of the treaty. Also, competence has been transferred from traditional national institutions (governments, parliaments) to institutions sui generis, which in turn tell governments what to do. Governments that can share their prerogatives through a simple contract with private organizations (McKinsey recently, and tomorrow, why not, “Davos Forum” or any other structure bringing together representatives of financial, industrial, commercial and media interests …).
And what has to be done is (treats and decisions of the “European” bodies): to make a system work in which capital, goods and people circulate freely in a vast territory (under American sovereignty). In this system, national institutions are called upon to use their remaining powers to deregulate what was previously subject to regulation: labor law, civil service law – with civil servants being treated as employees like everyone else (see in this context the reforms of the corps of ambassadors and prefects and the abolition of the ENA). Giving to the private what belonged to the public (public services).
But of course, for the functioning of this new society, the elections retain part of their usefulness. It is true that many people have realized that the use of the ballot paper has become a “joke”: high percentages of abstentions and blank or invalid votes; Proposals for an imperative mandate/dismissal of an elected member mid-term, a citizens’ initiative referendum, replacing the election with a drawing of lots, etc.
But most citizens still believe in the equation: choice = (inevitably) democracy. Especially those (pretty much all) who haven’t read the above contracts (and a few others). Citizens who have not noticed that these texts have deprived them of the opportunity to influence politics. Citizens, or rather “subjects” who, in the practice of ignorance, are aided by a clever propaganda that makes them believe that the idea of living in Europe by different rules than the current ones is an intellectual monstrosity (cf. Speeches of the “most important” presidential candidates).
The introduction of “European” lists thus makes it possible to further decouple the “voter” from the “elected”. Even with the national lists for the European elections, it was not apparent how there could be a “physical” or other link between the citizen and a few dozen people who were supposed to do the work that the Treaties required of them (some of whom had a “job ’ in politics before they could become MPs or ministers again). With the “European” lists, the French are “represented” by French people they don’t know, Germans, Poles or politicians appointed by other party leaders who, if you will, know them even less.
It will be the total negation of the notion of “representation,” but the actors who implement policies that cannot be criticized, that cannot be changed, will enjoy a legitimacy that is only sham, but works nonetheless. To make a regime that is no longer the people’s, work by the people and for the people.
This article first appeared on BOULEVARD VOLTAIRE , our partner in EUROPEAN MEDIA COOPERATION.
Ume
