The EU and the Illusion of Democracy

by Hans Vogel

Hans Vogel dismantles the European Union’s pretense of democracy, condemning its bureaucratic incompetence, economic decay, and the authoritarian grip of its delusional elite, who accelerate the EU’s collapse while silencing dissent.

The European Union has twenty-seven member-states, a population of 450 million and a gross national product of over eighteen trillion dollars. Somehow, the EU ruling elite basks in the conviction that what they like to call “Europe” is a democracy. This in itself gives them sufficient grounds for feeling superior.

Purely on paper, those EU statistics seem quite impressive. Only the US has a bigger GDP while China’s (with a population three times as big as the EU’s) is about as big as that of the EU. Hence the EU seems both economically impressive and rich. Actually, that might be why so many “Eurocrats” seem so satisfied with everything European, which in their minds is the same as the EU. It is always useful to bear in mind that Europe is quite a lot bigger than the EU. It comprises the Russian Federation west of the Ural Mountains, the Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, England, Scotland and Wales, Norway, and to be honest, Turkey as well. Thus, almost 300 million Europeans remain outside the EU.

Whereas as recently as three decades ago, EU member states such as Germany, Italy and France were considered economic powerhouses, based on solid agriculture and superb manufacturing industry, these are now in full collapse. Spain and Poland have joined the ranks of important industrial nations, but nowhere except in Germany (31%) does manufacturing account for more than about a quarter of GDP. It means that in actual fact, EU GDPs are quite a bit smaller, because much is made up by statistical manipulation. Most individual EU GDPs seem impressive due to parasitical government “income” (taxes and other forms of extortion) and expenditures. All decisions in this realm are made by the people who govern the EU and its member states, who seem intent on bringing about a total economic, social and cultural suicide. It is “the planet” that these people want to save, rather than the populations over which they are ruling.

To call that regime a “democracy” is actually an affront. Democracy presupposes among other things, the rule of law, the impartial maintenance of law and order, fair and honest elections, freedom of speech, freedom of economic action and freedom of movement. A democracy is not the kind of “open society” where only crooks like George Soros can do as they please without ever being made to answer for their actions. The obnoxious frequency and nauseating insistence with which European politicians refer to “our democracy” is in itself an indication that such a “democracy” is no more than an illusion.

As to the question of how to define the EU politically, it is best answered by means of an analogy. The closest analogy would appear to be the prewar USSR, when its government was composed of people’s commissars. In spite of what the adjective wants to suggest, these commissars were appointed, not elected. The members of the EU government (the EU Commission) are called commissioners. The only real political difference between the USSR and the EuSSR is that the latter has no all-powerful party leader like Stalin in the Soviet Union.

What strikes one when looking into the professional qualifications of the EU commissioners is their utter ignorance. Most have some kind of university degree, but what they studied does not inspire confidence, nor is it in any way useful for coping with today’s political issues, which often require a sound grasp of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects. On the contrary, most commissioners graduated in law, public administration, journalism or political science. These subjects require no particular intelligence, insight or other basic intellectual qualities. There is hardly anyone who has studied any of the STEM subjects. Granted, there is the occasional physician, but the Great Covid Show has demonstrated that most MDs don’t understand human health and have little understanding of medicine. What goes for the EU Commission goes for all governments in the member states: cabinet posts are mostly filled with lawyers, journalists, political scientists and public administration graduates.

Is it surprising that all those ignorant commissioners and cabinet ministers make harmful decisions? “Hardly,” should be the obvious answer. After all, they lack the knowledge, education, intelligence and common sense to question the contents of all those papers and documents they so dutifully sign on their desks. Nor are they intellectually equipped to question the validity of programs like Agenda 2030 or the so-called SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). Commissioners and cabinet ministers are therefore no more than either dim-witted stooges or people whose insatiable thirst for recognition and money makes them do just anything.

Moreover, commissioners and ministers are dependent on throngs of secretaries, advisors and civil servants. At an annual cost of some eight billion euros, some 40,000 of these are employed by the European Union, and stationed in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Like one can see in the unrivaled English sitcom Yes Minister and its sequel Yes Prime Minister (1980-1988), cabinet ministers are completely dependent on their aides.

Yet whereas once upon a time these aides would at least have a solid knowledge of key subjects, certainly pertaining to the areas their ministries had to deal with, today those very aides are of the same intellectual caliber as their ministerial masters. In keeping with overall European statistics, the overwhelming majority lack the faintest notion of STEM subjects. Nor is it likely this situation will change drastically anytime soon.

In most EU nations, STEM students are a small minority, except in Germany, France, Italy and Greece. On a global level, only Germany and France come even close to the percentages of leaders in this field like China, Russia and India. On the other hand, the average percentages of people with a truly completed academic education (MA and PhD) in the age group of 25 to 64 years range roughly between 15% and a little over 20%. The vast majority of those in anything other than STEM subjects, except for Germany and France. Statistically, most of those university-educated people consider themselves “progressives” and are among the most enthusiastic supporters of left-wing authoritarianism embodied in SDGs and Agenda 2030.

We may have here a plausible explanation for the sheer idiocy of governmental decrees and decisions all over the EU. Most politicians, journalists, pundits and public figures have no clue whatsoever and eagerly swallow all the nonsense about anthropogenic climate change as well as woke and transgender lunacy hook, line and sinker. Perhaps this popularity among a part of the rapidly aging “progressive” urban elites has been an incentive for the eurocrats to increase their own salaries by 15% in only two years (2022-2024). Commission President Ursula von der Leyen annually rakes in about half a million euros. Other commissioners receive an average of around 1,500 euros per day of “work.”

It is becoming increasingly evident that growing numbers of EU citizens feel betrayed and cornered by the regime. Despite massive vote manipulation, the German AfD party routinely harvests at least a third of the vote in regional elections, the Austrian FPÖ recently became the biggest party, and in France (Rassemblement National) and the Netherlands (Forum voor Democratie) one can see comparable phenomena. In Italy, the right-wing nationalists under Giorgia Meloni are in the government, while in Spain (VOX), Portugal (Chega), Greece and elsewhere, resistance against the politically correct EU authoritarians has long been substantial. It is especially among the underprivileged urban middle and lower classes and the farmers (the present-day kulaks) that these movements find many supporters. As well as among growing numbers of young highly educated people who see their future being destroyed by the EuSSR.

In an effort to stem the growth of all those moderate right-wing movements, censorship is becoming stricter by the day. At the same time, broad-spectrum lawfare is being waged against popular right-wing politicians in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France and Italy.

The more the screws of repression are being tightened, the louder the EuSSR eurocrats and the corrupt legacy media, with the support of liberal and social-democratic “elites,” are asserting they are defending “democracy” and “democratic values.” I am afraid most of those eurocrats sincerely believe they are at the helm of a democratic system and that their decisions are politically and morally impeccable.

What they fail to grasp is that the EU is like a moribund giant. Like Gulliver tied to the ground by the Lilliputians, the EU, being the remnant of what once was a formidable continent without which modern civilization would be unthinkable, has been immobilized by the fateful decisions of its rulers. Countless modern-day Lilliputians, most of them hailing from Africa and the Middle East, are feasting on what is not yet a corpse. At the same time, they are erecting windmills and solar farms on the giant’s belly and legs. They have also raided his bookshelves but they simply cannot decipher what is in the books.

This half-dead giant is called “democracy” by all eurocrats and their cronies and minions. These people are so far removed from reality that now they want to start a war against Russia. Well, this will only accelerate the EU’s final demise, which seems inevitable anyhow.

Order Hans Vogel’s How Europe Became American here.