Den nye presidenten for EU-kommisjonen, Jean-Claude Juncker, refser nederlandske partier for å la seg friste til å etterligne populistene, dvs. de løper etter velgerne i stedet for å stå fast og irettesette dem.

Det spørs om de tre partiene lar seg belære. Partier som belærer velgerne og oppdrar dem, kan få det vanskelig valgdagen. Geert Wilders Frihetsparti ligger øverst på meningsmålingene. Juncker som er fra lille Luxembourg har ikke samme problem. Luxembourg skummer fløten.

Det sier sitt at Juncker kritiserer partiene for å være for lydhøre for velgerne. Han mener det gjør landene uregjerlige. Her kommer begrunnelsen for en ny autoritær politikk frem: partiene må lære å overstyre velgerne. Men hvordan gjør man det i et demokrati? Man øker avstanden til folket.

“Attacked and goaded by citizens and media, they give more room to the discontent [among citizens]. And do you know what the result is? That countries become ungovernable”, Juncker told Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant on Saturday (27 December).

“My advice to parties like CDA [Christian-Democrat] and PvdA [Labour] is: Don’t imitate the populists! If you want to engage with angry citizens, you have to stand in front of them. Not walk away or run after them.”

Juncker, who was prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013, also blames the three Dutch mainstream parties for the Dutch ‘No’ in a referendum on the European treaty in 2005.

He said they did not defend the treaty enough “out of fear of being associated with the EU”.

Vinden i høyre blåser mot høyre. Men det ser ikke ut til å affisere Juncker.

The UK is due to hold elections in May with most of the focus likely to be on how well the eurosceptic Ukip party can do.

In 2014, it won the EU elections in the UK and made its breakthrough into Westminster by winning two parliamentary seats in autumn.

In France, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front party won a quarter of the votes in the EU elections, beating the main centre-right and centre-left parties.

A recent survey showed that if the vote was held today she would win the first round of France’s presidential elections, due in 2017.

Meanwhile in Germany, the eurosceptic AfD, founded in 2013, had its first electoral success in the EU elections in May and then subsequently won seats in local assemblies in three German states.

 

http://euobserver.com/news/127054