I am very liberal politically, but I 100% support people on the right wing who run into trouble with the Neoliberal overlords.
We need to have respect for all people's opinions (that are non-violent, etc.) and support all people's rights to vote as they wish. I think the Neoliberals must envy China's authoritarian control of their population, because that is what I think the Neoliberals want also.
BTW, I joined the World Economic Forum for a while just to read directly what they were up to.
The term fascism is often misused, but I’d say not this time.
This is the very first time I've heard such a thing. Do you have a source showcasing what you claim to be threats?
Please explain what led you to interpret this as a threat of any form. The Orban reference was pretty clear.
From the article:
> "This is a clear reference to the ability of the European Commission to cut funds allocated to member countries when they are deemed to be violating the rule of law."
EU courts are the judical oversight, and the EU parliament can remove the commission at any time (legislative oversight).
Corruption isnt just taking bribes. Urusula’s comments are akin to coercing voters into voting against their preference and are a clear violation of treaties whereby the eu has no right to intervene in the sovereign voting process of member states. Its not like italians were bribed or forced into voting a certain way. That means ursula is abusing a position of power in favour of certain political parties with the threat of cutting funding if their new leader isnt docile enough. That is corruption and the perfectly fine eu courts will never sanction her for it.
"We'll pay close attention if you stick to the laws" is pretty much the worst the commission can really threaten a government, which isn't really all that much if there is nothing serious to punish.
Your US/Germany comparison doesn't work, since that's an entirely different situation. For starters, a state like the US can actually apply pressure or use force, because there isn't an established strong framework saying it can't nor anything directly enforcing what little there is. US enforced sanctions over the pipeline construction because it didn't like the pipeline, nothing Germany can do directly. (And if you want to assume the recent sabotage was the US, pretty much the same applies)
The commission is just not an independent state-level actor in that way. It's actually constrained by a state-like legal framework around it, granting it limited powers for specific purposes. Outside of those, it can and will be reigned in very quickly.
[0] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eus-von-der-leyen-deliv...
> My approach is that whatever democratic government is willing to work with us, we're working together," von der Leyen said at Princeton University in the United States on Thursday, responding to a question on whether there were any concerns with regard to the upcoming elections in Italy.
> "If things go in a difficult direction, I've spoken about Hungary and Poland, we have tools," she added.
So a liberal democratic organization is prepared to protect itself from sabotage from fascist organizations that are actively manipulated by external actors to undermine them. That's your threat.
The European Union is a federation of liberal democracies. It's not a Bond-like villain organization.
The bulk of EU's member states value human rights, including women's rights and individual rights and freedom.
You're putting up absurd strawmen to try to rationalize nonsense.
The irony of this comment!
She did not. You're trying to pass off a conspiracy theory by omitting context and taking quotes out of context, including erasing parts of the quote.
If you're still confused just go learn about Victor Orban and Hungary's recent regression into an totalitarian dictatorship that's profoundly illiberal and outright a sock puppet of external actors such as Putin's Russian federation. Go learn about it's destruction of Hungary's independent judiciary and attacks on fundamental human rights, which go against fundamental principles of the European Union, and learn about how the EU has been reacting to this sort of illiberal drift.
Maybe there is a third option, other than appeasement or threats. Maybe we can try and understand why people of now a third eu member state chose such a political leader.
If you don't like it, kick USA out of NATO. Soon, please.
Crimea was part of Russia. Since 1783.
Oh but i love it. If anything nato should expand. Which it does.
> Crimea was part of Russia. Since 1783.
And before that it was ottoman. And before that mongol. And before that greek.
We froze borders, expect by force where people were genocidal, or by diplomacy everywhere else, after world war two.
Crimea is Ukrainian. Since 1954 love.
Out of curiosity, how did you creep in here?
Who are "we"? How did you "froze" border, what does that even mean?
After the WWII the borders in Europe had shifted multiple times, from the union of eastern and western Germanies and dissolution of the Soviet Union, to the teardown of Yugoslavia, the Kosovo case being the most controversial one.
And that's just Europe, not even talking about the rest of the world.
> Crimea is Ukrainian. Since 1954 love.
In 1954 Crimea had been a part of the Soviet Union, legally an autonomous republic (Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic). I am not sure which part of it suddenly makes it Ukrainian.
When the SU had dissolved, being an autonomous republic, Crimea was supposed to become a whole independent state on its own. And it had been for 3 or so years https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Crimea_(1992–199...
It became de facto Ukraine only after Ukraine brought it forcibly under control in 1995, abolishing the status of republic.
Educate yourself, love.