Europapa

Joost Klein performs again after the failure in Malmö. As one of the founding fathers of the Eurovision Song Contest, the Netherlands has been barred from participating. We still don't know what really happened. Surely it does not seem so difficult for the Swedish Public Prosecutor's Office to investigate this. Despite the firm intention not to watch I did. A non-binary winner with a lousy song and a recital that makes me feel ashamed. But that's Europe today.

Political revolutions in Europe
Soon Europe will also be in the spotlight politically. I noticed this especially through the ballots in the mailbox. This morning I read in the newspaper that AfD in Germany has been banned from the European Identity and Democracy Group in the European Parliament. The VVD also faces that fate due to their collaboration with PVV. The Swedish liberals already preceded the VVD. The signal is clear: democracy is not for the right. Timmermans made that clear again in the debate about the information this week. He thinks it is a disaster for the country that the four parties that made a mainline agreement will soon be calling the shots.

Looking at Europe, there is not much good to observe. Let me start on a positive note. We no longer have to change money in most European countries. That will come in handy when we go on vacation soon. There is free movement of goods. Great for truck drivers who are no longer held up by border controls. There is free movement of capital. It has now taken several decades to actually realize this. Member States regularly fall back into their old patterns and then have to be called to order by Brussels and the European Court. But in principle it is good that there should be no barriers.

Extreme Right?
But there is certainly a downside. Our pensions have suffered enormously from financial mismanagement in the southern member states of Europe. Artificially, the ECB has had to keep interest rates low to keep them from collapsing under their debt burden. It has been quiet for a long time, but don't believe now that the problems have been solved. The migration that erupted under Merkel has presented us with an impossible task. I now see social problems all over Europe that our grandchildren will not have solved yet. And still people who want to put a stop to this phenomenon are called extreme right-wing, radical and fascist.

Unimaginable that you are not ashamed that from your political role you have contributed to the current misery in the suburbs in many European cities. We opened the borders, but had no plan how we would organize the influx in terms of housing, integration and bridging cultural disadvantages.

Europe is dictating our daily lives and surely that was not the intention. Power will have to return to the member states while retaining the benefits of the union. Whether the upcoming elections will help with this is very doubtful. With the change in the political climate in many member states, following the example of the Netherlands, there will be a lot of pressure on Brussels. The ruling elite there will not easily relinquish power. Still, it is wise to listen to local sentiments. Otherwise, many fires will have to be put out in the coming years.