Even if good will were there among the political classes, the pan-European junket could never have worked, because something key is missing: Europe has no common public. The EU proves that democracy can never succeed without a common discourse. The supranational European Parliament, which in any case has hardly anything to say, is appointed in national elections. But the nightly news, the political leaders, the cultures of debate and the traditions remain purely national. Because of this, left and right majorities regularly vote against all incumbent parties when it comes to greater Europe. Here the majority of the polyglot and internationally networked elite simply holds no sway.
Europe must therefore be cut back to what Europeans still understand, to some extent, and can then weigh up at the ballot box. This Europe will not be the lobbying and compromise factory of Brussels, where eighty percent of our laws are cobbled together today. It will be rather, purely and solely, a Europe of democratic nations.
Europe will only be served well when the rumbling and jolting stop on the over-engineered machinery of the EU. All decision-making must go back to being democratic – and that at national, regional and local levels. The encroachments must end. In any event, the euro will collapse.
There is only one road ahead for Europe: back to the nation. Back to democracy.
(Source: Excerpts from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
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