The Green New Deal will be watered down. There will be a drive to roll back rules and regulations. And there will be far tougher control of the borders. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen secured the support of the bloc’s parliament today by promising a radical overhaul of the policies of the last four years. There is just one problem. This is the same leader who implemented all the policies she has just ditched.
Von der Leyen has been exposed as a politician who believes in nothing
It is all changing in the EU. The Green New Deal, a Europop version of Bidenomics, is going to be diluted. For example, cars running on ‘green fuels’ will still be permitted, instead of only electric vehicles, while agricultural rules will be relaxed. The industrial strategies funded by common borrowing, most significantly on the €750 billion Covid Recovery Fund, will be scaled down. Commissioners will be tasked with cutting back red tape. Perhaps most importantly, the borders will be brought under control. For example, von der Leyen now plans to triple the number of border and coastal guards to prevent illegal immigrants, and she might even consider a Rwanda-style offshore processing scheme. It will be a far tougher, more conservative, agenda.
Of course, it is not hard to understand why von der Leyen has changed tack. At last month’s European elections the continent shifted significantly to the right, with big gains for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France and Georgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy. Von der Leyen is a realist. To secure the backing of the Parliament, she had to shift significantly as well. Otherwise she risked being defeated.
True, the politics might be impressive. It takes a certain Machiavellian skill to secure the support of the Greens as well as the Brothers of Italy. We don’t know what deals were hammered out in the shadows (and today’s voting was secret), but the results are impressive.
The catch is this: von der Leyen has been exposed as a politician who believes in nothing, except of course in herself, and remaining in power. After championing one version of the EU for her first four years, she will now dismantle much of that work over the next four, and drive through a very different set of policies. It might secure her another term – but only at the expense of sacrificing whatever principles she might have once had.
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