For those still unable to imagine how EU “democracy” would work after the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by all EU states, which probably will not be states anymore afterward, because it will be sufficient that the politically dominant ideological cliques of what is left of them flock together in order to determine parts of the politics of the smaller (and often better) entities, MEP and German “anti-authoritarian” Daniel Cohn-Bendit has already given an exemplary representation of how it will look and feel – in the Castle of Prague during last December. The following is an excerpt from an account on that performance published by the British Telegraph:
I happen to know the splendid room in which the meeting took place, because I sat there myself with President Klaus in 2005, when he had arranged for a history of the EU I had co-authored to be published in Czech. As Cohn-Bendit was aware, the only flag that flies over the castle is the presidential standard (though the “ring of stars” is much in evidence elsewhere in Prague, flown outside every government ministry).
As described to me by someone present, President Klaus greeted the MEPs with his usual genial courtesy. Whatever his own views, he assured them, his countrymen would conduct their presidency in fully “communautaire” fashion. Cohn-Bendit then staged his ambush. Brusquely plonking down his EU flag., which he observed sarcastically was so much in evidence around the palace, he warned that the Czechs would be expected to put through the EU’s “climate change package” without interference.
“You can believe what you want,” he scornfully told the president, “but I don’t believe, I know that global warming is a reality.” He added, “my view is based on scientific views and the majority approval of the EU Parliament”.
He then moved on to the Lisbon Treaty. “I don’t care about your opinions on it,” he said. If the Czech Parliament approves the treaty in February, he demanded, “Will you respect the will of the representatives of the people?”
He then reprimanded the president for his recent meeting in Ireland with Declan Ganley, the millionaire leader of the “No” campaign in the Irish referendum, claiming that it was improper for Klaus to have talked to someone whose “finances come from problematic sources”.
Visibly taken aback by this onslaught, Klaus observed: “I must say that no one has talked to me in such a style and tone in the past six years. You are not on the barricades in Paris here. I thought that such manners ended for us 19 years ago” (ie when Communism fell). When Klaus suggested to Hans-Gert Pöttering, the president of the EU Parliament, that perhaps it was time for someone else to take the floor, Pöttering replied that “anyone from the members of the Parliament can ask you what he likes”, and invited Cohn-Bendit to continue.
“This is incredible’, said Klaus. “I have never experienced anything like this before.”
After a further exchange, in which Cohn-Bendit compared Klaus unfavourably with his predecessor, President Havel, he gave way to an Irish MEP, Brian Crowley, who began by saying “all his life my father fought against the British domination [of Ireland]… That is why I dare to say that the Irish wish for the Lisbon Treaty. It was an insult, Mr President, to me and the Irish people what you said during your state visit to Ireland.” Klaus repeated that he had not experienced anything like this for19 years and that it seemed we were no longer living in a democracy, but that it was “post-democracy which rules the EU”.
On the EU constitution, Klaus recalled that three countries had voted against it, and that if Mr Crowley wanted to talk about insults to the Irish people, “the biggest insult to the Irish people is not to accept the result of the Irish referendum”. This provoked Crowley to retort angrily, “You will not tell me what the Irish think. As an Irishman, I know it best.”
In the same week, Cohn-Bendit, or “Dany le rouge”, who, according to Wikipedia, had previously called the German anti-capitalist, anti-American, anti-Semitic “locusts debate, initiated by [the Social democratic politician] Franz Müntefering, a language of the past” (yes, according to Wikipedia debates are languages too), told Czech reporters, in a more modern language, i.e. in that of Hitler, Goebbels, Ahmadinejad et al.:
Your president is a toxic virus of Czech politics.
Probably because even that, in the view of the former revolutionary “dissident” Cohn-Bendit, might be considered as more or less “based on scientific views and the majority approval of the EU Parliament”.