.@OpenEurope on @MartinSchulz's new campaign ads http://t.co/ECWtV53G0f Tho I think they disagree with French veto over German flag waving
— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) May 23, 2014
Just to make clear, as Bojan Pancevski of the Sunday Times points out, it’s not that Schulz is playing the German card per se that we’re critical of – clearly Germany is within its right to pursue its interests like everyone else. It’s that Schulz has built his entire career and campaign on the notion that the nationalist interest is a dated (and indeed dangerous) concept.
--------------------
This is really odd - and painfully revealing.
In today's Bild - Germany's and Europe's biggest tabloid, which is up there with UK tabloids on the hit list of Brussels spokespeople (Bild once urged the Greeks to sell their islands) - the Socialist's Spitzenkandidaten Martin Schulz has taken out an advert that comes conspicuosly close to pandering to nationalist instincts.
The ad reads:
Only if you vote for Martin Schulz and the SPD can a German become the President of the EU Commission.The thing is, Schulz has built his career on bashing those who come even close to playing the 'nationalist' card in Europe - targets have included David Cameron and indeed Angela Merkel herself - claiming he hopes “national identities [will] melt away" and that the “The Nation State has reached its limit.” In today's Le Figaro he said he campaigns against "nationalism adorned with all virtues." And in a recent interview with Der Spiegel, Herr Schulz claimed that "nationality plays no role for me."
By all means, don't your let 'pan-European democratic values' stand in the way of scoring some desperate, last-minute points in a tabloid...
3 comments:
Opportunistic.
Schultz does pretty well in Germany. Where people had the time to get used to him.
However as a candidate somewhere else he is the biggest disaster imaginable. Hard to see that many lefties will be pleased that Schultz is presented as their Europan leader in debates etc.
Looks like he is simply going for the votes were he can reralistically get them. In fact all 3 major candidates have this problem. But only Schultz comes from a country that numbers wise can make a difference. Getting 5% extra in Luxembourg is not going to do that.
I genuinely do not understand how such a blatant hypocrite can receive any credibility at all. He claims to be against the nation state and nationalism in general, whilst promoting the EU that has its own flag, anthem, president, very undemocratic centralised government machine and craves ever more power complete with police force, army and satellite surveillance system. Bonkers.
There never has been any pan-European democracy. That is not the plan for the EU. Post democracy means ruling the plebs by the wrongly titled 'political elite' (or the scum that has risen to the top); with a charade of democracy played out in the Duma/EP.
Post a Comment