“Um ingénuo perguntará para que se votou em Maio. Setenta
por cento dos portugueses já tinham percebido.”
Vasco Pulido Valente sobre o Parlamento Português e a “Comédia
da Europa”
1 de Julho
Os chefes dos partidos começam a escolher, perante a passividade
geral, os deputados que nós vamos obrigatoriamente eleger em Outubro. Rui Rio
já apresentou seis para cabeças-de-lista em Lisboa, Porto, Braga, Aveiro,
Leiria e Coimbra. Foi uma surpresa: caras novas, tiradas do anonimato, por
critérios que nós nunca saberemos. Só uma coisa está à vista, o feminismo do
chefe: quatro mulheres, dois homens. A mim, coube-me uma filha do Pedro e da
Helena Roseta, chamada Filipa, sobre a qual até hoje não sabia nada, nem sequer
que tinha nascido. Estou agora à espera, para comparar, do que vai sair das
intrigas do Largo do Rato.
Esta extraordinária maneira de nomear os nossos soberanos –
representação proporcional, método de Hondt e arbítrio dos chefes – não parece
incomodar os portugueses.
2 de Julho
O grande estratega António Costa e os seus parceiros da
“esquerda democrática” europeia, depois de uma reunião que durou 18 horas, para
não falar em negociações de meses, acabaram de mãos vazias. Costa confessou:
“neste momento não há plano nenhum”. Pois não.
A Irlanda, a Croácia, a Letónia, a Itália e o grupo de
Visegrado estragaram tudo. Não era preciso ser bruxo para prever o que sucedeu.
A “Europa” só existiu porque houve forças externas que lhe deram alguma unidade
e coesão. Durante a Guerra Fria, foi o anti-comunismo e a vontade da América.
Depois, a necessidade que o Ocidente teve de absorver as antigas colónias da
Rússia. Hoje, a “Europa” não tem destino; e a América já se desinteressou dela.
O centro não resiste e as parcelas fogem cada uma para o seu lado. Não vale a
pena falar de populismo e ameaçar com a extrema-direita. A Europa, a velha
Europa das nações, é muito complicada e não se pode reduzir às simplicidades da
ortodoxia comunitária.
3 de Julho
Acabou a comédia da “Europa”, das eleições e do parlamentarismo.
Quando se chegou a um beco sem saída, apareceu à vista de todos o poder da
Alemanha. A sra. Merkel falou ao PPE e o PPE, disciplinadamente, falou aos 28
(ou 27, conforme se queira). Macron abichou um lugarzinho para Christine
Lagarde e os socialistas um prémio de consolação, o Alto-Representante para a
Política Exterior, o que é óptimo, tendo em conta que não há “política
exterior”.
Um ingénuo perguntará para que se votou em Maio. Setenta por
cento dos portugueses já tinham percebido.
‘United States of Europe’!? Se este é o caminho da tão
anunciada e necessária ‘reforma’ na UE,
então estão cegos e surdos e revelam o mais perigoso autismo perante os sinais
dos Europeus.
A tão necessária unidade e consenso perante questões como as
Alterações Climáticas, só se poderá efectuar com o retorno ao princípio inicial
da ‘Unidade em Diversidade’.
É a Europa das Nações que tem que se manter unida perante as
questões Mundiais mais urgentes.
A Europa Federal está morta.
OVOODOCORVO
Ursula von der Leyen: In her own words
‘My aim is the United States of Europe,’ the nominee for
Commission president once said.
By ZIA WEISE 7/4/19, 4:01 AM CET Updated 7/5/19,
8:09 AM CET
Germany's Ursula von der Leyen has been largely silent since
being nominated for the European Commission presidency on Tuesday, besides a
quick "hallo, hello, salut" on Wednesday afternoon.
Yet the longest-serving member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's
Cabinet — she led the family ministry and the social affairs ministry before
becoming defense minister in 2013 — has given plenty of interviews over the
years.
Here's the European Council nominee for Commission president
in her own words on subjects ranging from foreign policy to gender equality.
European integration
One quote in particular has been making the rounds since von
der Leyen's name started floating as an option at the Council summit this week:
"My aim is the United States of Europe — modelled on federal states like
Switzerland, Germany or the U.S.," she told Der Spiegel in 2011. She
repeated her call for a federal EU in an interview with Die Zeit in 2016,
adding: "I imagine the Europe of my children or grandchildren not as a
loose union of states trapped by national interests."
As defense minister, she pushed for greater security
cooperation in the EU, urging a "defense union" and calling for the
establishment of an "army of Europeans."
"Europe must be able to act independently precisely in
the areas where Europe must act independently" — Ursula von der Leyen,
European Commission presidential nominee
Defense and foreign policy
Von der Leyen has also worked with France on closer military
cooperation. Her idea for a European joint armed forces is somewhat different
from that of French President Emmanuel Macron — an "army of
Europeans" rather than an "EU army." Last November, she said
that the responsibility for European troops should "not be
centralized" but remain with their respective governments. She has
stressed that European military cooperation does not stand in competition with
NATO, saying that in defense matters, "we want to remain transatlantic,
but we also want to become more European."
She has also called for an end to the EU's unanimity
requirement in foreign policy matters and said the bloc must be capable of
unified military intervention when needed. "Europe must be able to act
independently precisely in the areas where Europe must act independently,"
she said.
While von der Leyen has warned about military escalation
against Russia — rejecting in 2014 supplying Ukraine with weapons, which she
said could accelerate the conflict — she has advocated a tough stance on
Moscow. "President Putin does not appreciate weakness. Currying favor or
indulgence does not make him friendlier," she said last year, adding that
while she wished for a better relationship with Russia and is open to dialogue,
she "sees the facts: Russia has annexed Crimea, it is strangulating
eastern Ukraine. Aleppo has been buried under a carpet of bombs by Russian
planes."
In January, she warned that Europe is not paying enough
attention to China, saying: "Where Russia attacks militarily in the cyber
area, China attacks with economic means ... China woos us with a friendly face.
And that's why we often overlook how single-mindedly it pursues its goals. And
how cleverly." She also criticized Chinese authoritarianism and control
over its citizens, adding: "I am convinced that the pursuit of freedom
defines humanity."
As defense minister, she has also been vocal in hitting back
at U.S. President Donald Trump and his accusation that Germany was not living
up to its NATO promises. Last year, von der Leyen — who has lived in the U.S. —
told Die Zeit: "A part of U.S. society has forgotten what once made
America great ... optimism, pioneer spirit, a self-image as melting pot,"
adding: "America is more than its presidents."
Brexit
Von der Leyen views — as do many European politicians — the
U.K.’s decision to leave the EU as a tragedy. In an interview with newspaper
Berliner Morgenpost last year, she said: “It is a fact that with Brexit, we all
lose.” She also criticized the "hollow promises ... inflated by populists
ahead of the referendum."
Yet von der Leyen, who studied in London for a year, is no
Donald Tusk, who has supported a second referendum in the hope that the U.K.
would then choose to remain. “As much as I would like to see the Brits stay in
the EU, they voted to leave,” she said in the Morgenpost interview.
As defense minister, she stressed that the U.K. and the EU
would still cooperate on security matters in the future. But she won’t allow
special treatment for the U.K. post Brexit. In an interview with tabloid Bild
the day after the referendum, she said: “We want a good partnership with Great
Britain in the future. But if we define a special path for Great Britain, other
partners like Norway will demand the same. Rules must be the same for
everyone.”
Rule of law, democracy and migration
At the height of the 2015 migration crisis, von der Leyen
criticized Hungary when it used tear gas against asylum seekers, saying:
"This is not acceptable and this is against the European rules that we
have. Therefore it is very important that we stick to the respect [where] human
dignity and human rights are concerned ... The refugees have a right to be
treated decently." And in 2017, she angered Poland by saying "the
healthy democratic resistance of the young generation in Poland needs to be
supported."
In a long interview on the rise of populism with Der Spiegel
in 2016, she mused: "Perhaps we as democrats have believed for too long
that democracy is so powerful, so convincing, so brilliant that its victory
march cannot be stopped ... Now we realize that democracy can go to the dogs if
we don't care for it. If the most precious thing about it, the respect for
others and the ability to compromise, gets lost."
She added: "Not democracy has to change, but democrats.
We have to stand up again and fight for our cause ... perhaps populism is our
chance ... because its dull simplicity forces ourselves to also convince with
clear and comprehensible language on what we stand for: A tolerant,
open-minded, democratic society inside Europe."
In 2014, von der Leyen temporarily hosted a young Syrian
refugee in her home and helped him find an apprenticeship. "He enriched
our lives," she said. "So many refugees want to find their feet in
Germany and do something in Germany. We should take up and support this drive,
then integration will be successful." In 2016, she announced plans to
train refugees in the Bundeswehr in areas such as medicine and technology.
"The idea is that one day they will return to Syria and help with
rebuilding," she said at the time.
Gender equality, family policy and LGBT rights
For a long time the highest-profile female German politician
besides Merkel, von der Leyen has experienced her fair share of sexism — the
press once liked to refer to her as "super-mama" (she has seven
children), and a Bavarian politician mocked her for implementing parental leave
for fathers, saying men did not need a "diaper-changing traineeship."
She has long been vocal about the need for gender parity and
equal pay, writing in Handelsblatt this year: "As long as men and women do
not earn the same money for the same work, it's too early to be
self-satisfied" about achievements in gender equality. While in Cabinet,
she has backed implementing quotas for women on company boards and in the armed
forces in the face of fierce opposition from her conservative party, including
from Merkel. She has also pushed for a more equitable family policy, once saying:
"To me, equality is achieved when men are no longer insulted as wimps if
they take care of their baby or their infirm father."
She campaigned for equal marriage for LGBT couples (which
Germany legalised in 2017) and drew the ire of her conservative party
colleagues after calling for LGBT couples to be permitted to adopt, saying:
"I know of no study that says that children who grow up with [same-sex
parents] fare differently than children who grow up in heterosexual
marriages."
Climate change
Nichts. Nada. Niente. Von der Leyen doesn't seem to have
spoken — or been asked — about climate change (yet).
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