Irish voters are going to the polls today and will decide the future of the Lisbon treaty. As always the anti-EU forces, consisting of the far left and far right have not been shy to make bold claims about the treaty. From "the treaty will allow the EU to conscript Irish citizens into an EU army" to "a great conspiracy to legalize abortion".
Each and every election on European issues has always pitted the center against the crazies. This means that in most cases the standard political alliances of left and right are not functional when it comes to Europe. I found an interesting discussion of this issue at The Monkey Cage.
I am looking forward for tonight when Germany will crush Croatia and qualify for the last eight, and tomorrow I expect to read about a glorious victory of the pro-treaty forces! This will be a great week!
Thursday, 12 June 2008
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2 comments:
Isn't it kind of weird that yesterday about three million people, which is like 1% of the EU's population, decided about the future of the whole EU? (OK, that may be exaggerated, but at least they worked some powerful switches yesterday..)
And isn't it somewhat ironic that as a result of this 1% population poll the whole constitution-thing could be stopped, leading to a victory of those who always proclaimed that the EU wouldn't listen to a small nation's voice, such as Ireland's?
Funny, that today we might proof them wrong by listening to that very voice - only that it would be to late to make our point then.
(Hey, all you eurosceptics: don't get this into the wrong throat. I'm totally in favor of basic democratic decisions in the EU and everywhere and I totally think that EU politics has to be transported to and put into the hands of the voters more! It's just that I suddenly realized that tonight the people of sweet little Ireland are going to write a big chapter in European history books - and sadly, they are doing that somewhat quietly: there seems to be no big coverage, at least in German media.)
All the best,
Lunovis
well ,that didn't work out so well did? Ireland decided to veto a treaty already approved by 18 Nations. It is unclear where to go from here.
As I have written on a lot of other blogs: Irelands decision should be respected, but equally the will of those nations which have decided to ratify has to be respected.
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