European Politics

Europe 1.0 was an economic project and a peace project. That was not wrong. It was just unfinished. A market was built and the hope was that politics would follow. It did not follow. Now people experience Brussels as regulation — but not as democracy. That is not a communication problem. That is a design flaw. “Independent journalism is an anchor in a world that is increasingly difficult to see through.” ...

Europe does not have a leadership problem. It has a construction problem. Ursula von der Leyen is not the problem. The system that produced her is the problem. Appointed, not elected. Accountable to bodies that no one can name. A face without a mandate. This is not a communication problem. It is written into the treaties. Who to Call Henry Kissinger asked it fifty years ago: what number do I dial when I want to call Europe? ...