this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2025
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The theory is that. What is perplexing is how with so many countries, with so many stakeholders (voters, industries,...), the discipline is incredible. The Ursula case is interesting, the US did not like the candidates that was posed to win (Manfred Weber as probably saw on him as too patriotic German and Margrethe Vestager as too popular with Europeans with her antitrust cases on American companies)... so imposing ignoring the Spitzenkandidat system and resorting only to secretive backroom deals... it is amazing this is what the EU has become!!! It is no surprise most EU representatives in the parliament know no clue about the candidates and just follow party lines, but still... I would expect some more dissidents. Meloni in Italy is interesting too... her speeches were vociferously anti-establishment but the media was kind of passive with her... and no surprise, she is indeed perfectly inline with the establishment... but, the media were told to be nice with her before elections so the apparatus knew beforehand her real self! There is a vetting process before hand!
Imo this comes at least partially down to the generic pattern of representatives becoming more conformist when they get into power. In my country for example we have a Pirate party, and they were quite radically progressive when they were founded but as they got into parliament+govt they became more centrist. You see this happen in many countries. I wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that they are being 'vetted' by hidden elites, I think it's very possible that its just an effect of the incentives you face in the process of competing in elections, facing the media, the environment in a parliament, etc. etc. But even if the latter is the case, it wouldn't be a good thing since you have a diverse set of representatives representing a diverse society, and if the democratic system molds them to have a uniform set of traits then you are losing accuracy of that representation.
No doubt, with more responsibilities there is always a tendency to conform more, but from there to vote blindly there is a stretch. I wonder what happened to the Pirate parties in Europe!! I am looking for a pan-European, not necessarily federalist party in Europe but the few available do not convince me... I am tempting to create one (partially joking)... or just give up and find a peaceful live in some coast.
Hmm... Volt?
I did check them... even interacted with one of their executive members but, besides the literature that found it mostly bland and ambiguous, did not find enthusiasm there for the change Europeans demand. Besides, being federalist, I think on the rest of policies they will accommodate to whoever they partner with on the center-left. I did not see a substantial audience with Volt's message, maybe I should have spoken with more of their people. My search continues. Thanks SubArticTundra.
There's also MERA25 (lead by the likes of Slavoj Žižek and Jannis Ver.). I quite liked them but they (and other pan-euro parties) have no chance of winning seats so long as the seats are distributed within each country separately.
Good Point! Yes I have been following MeRA25 / DIEM25 (gosh horrible name(s)!) and their podcast since 2 yrs ago and Yanis Varoufakis for more than a decade... great man yet so sad he is unable to connect Europeans. Of course, Brussels was able to permanently linked him with Greeceś default, when he was the very person denouncing the whole scheme. They need a marketing person (and a new name now since 25 is half over). I was tempted once to give him a great domain for a new European party. In any case, Amazing intelligent and humanistic guy, but his speeches sound too commie and too rancid. Even, over and over he proved himself right in international politics and economics and his new book positions him as very, very well verse in current technological affairs,yet Yanis, rather than being the front lead, he should be the mentor to someone can speak in today's language.
It is true, the system in Europe highly penalizes pan-european or even pan-national parties in contrast a small highly concentrate party in a region, so one could consider to organize a coalition wave of small parties scattered across the EU. But I still think is is better to have a common name across Europe. This is a thing of talking to a few lawyers to see the possibilities.