Prof. Ryszard Legutko during debate in European Parliament

Sitting next to Nigel Farage the Polish professor made a superb speech voicing his honest opinion directed towards Angela Merkel and François Hollande.

The EU needs less self-adoration and more ‘fresh air, clarity and fairness’, the first Vice-President of the European Conservatives and Reformists group Ryszard Legutko said in a debate with President Hollande and Chancellor Merkel.

Addressing the two leaders, who had given speeches on the current situation in the EU, he argued that the fact that two countries still see themselves as the engine of the EU was a part of the problem the EU faces. He also argued that there is a fine line between leadership and dominance in the EU, and warned that people with different viewpoints need to be listened to in the EU.

The leading Polish MEP said:

“Many have said today that your joint appearance is historic because it shows the Franco-German engine of Europe is still powering on and we have a radiant future in front of us.

“But don’t you think that this is at least a part of the problem.

“That one or two countries decide for the rest? And we altogether are 28 and 28 is far more than two.

“Over the years the EU of course evolved. But my feeling is that its leadership has not.

“Mrs Merkel, the events of recent years have placed a burden of leadership on your shoulders. Your critics say however – and they may have a point – that you sometimes forget the difference between leadership and dominance. And I get the impression that across the EU people are concerned about that distinction because it has become more and more a vital question.

“And that is part of the reason why we face this crisis over Europe’s future. People are concerned that their viewpoint does not matter. Some are ignored. Others are bullied and others are vilified. People are concerned because they hear this deafening federalist rhetoric not rooted in reality and through that thin vein of rhetoric they see a ruthless power play with the President and Chancellor as major actors.

“Chancellor Merkel you spent your earlier years in a communist country. So did I and I remember a saying from the bad old days that Communism was a system that courageously solves the problem it itself created.
I think that could also be said about the EU. We created the euro system and since day one we have been wrestling with the problems that it generated. And solving those problems led to more dominance and more disregard for elementary rules of cooperation.

“Turning to the issue of migration and refugees, of course the EU did not create the problem but it failed to identify it soon enough and has still not entirely succeeded in identifying it.

“Why inviting the immigrants and then cancel the invitation. Why play a cat and mouse with the Schengen procedures? Why this unbearable confusion of humanitarian, moral and political arguments that obscure the gravity of the crisis we are faced with. This is not a language of dialogue but a language to obscure things and we cannot talk to each other in that language. It is preaching, it is not a dialogue. There has been a lot of preaching this afternoon in this chamber and as a matter of fact, every day.

“So it was you decision to suspend the Schengen rules and open the German border and then to close the border again. As far as I know you did not consult other governments or European institutions. If this is not a proof of dominance, what is? If one wants to have another proof look at what happened at the Home Affairs Council. This is not the right way of doing things.

“Let me finish with the following plea. I urge you to be more responsive to realist. The more that European hubris is riding high the more people are being left behind, not listened to, pushed outside the territory of respectability. This has lasted long enough and cannot go on forever. European politics needs less self-adoration, which an abundance sample has been had today, but it needs more fresh air, clarity and fairness. Otherwise the EU will be more and more looked at with reluctance, disdain if not outright hostility. We do not want that, do we?”

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http://ecrgroup.eu/news/legutko-to-hollande-and-merkel-the-eu-is-28-countries-not-two/#more-12452

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THANK YOU PROFESSOR  !

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Now ISIS is Conquering Europe With Immigrants

http://journal-neo.org/2015/09/16/is-isis-conquering-europe-with-immigrants/

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Richard Legutko about Donald Tusk

A political shark – ruthless, brutal, ready to sacrifice everything for power. In international politics he is a teddy bear, or rather Mrs. Merkel’s poodle. Many European leaders who voted for him probably yielded to Mrs. Merkel’s persuasion.

For any Pole who has sufficient political knowledge the nomination of Donald Tusk to the position of the President of the Council was somewhat irritating. Tusk, undoubtedly the worst Polish prime minister since 1989, but at the same time the great charmer of a large part of the Polish society proved also miraculously efficient in charming many leaders of the European countries. The internal situation in Poland is bad, and the record of Tusk’s government in foreign affairs, education, public finance, army, and practically all other areas is appalling. His ratings as prime minister in the opinion polls are all time low, but at the same time he has his own faithful electorate which supports him and his party whatever social and political cost. This is – one has to admit it – something of an achievement.

What was it that got him the appointment? The most important and perhaps sufficient reason is that he is Mrs. Angela Merkel’s favourite. She apparently likes him, but there is more to it than that. She knows that he will not oppose her. Der Spiegel wrote not long ago that Merkel supports Tusk because he is “easy to handle”. This is another paradox. In Polish politics Tusk has been a political shark – ruthless, brutal, ready to sacrifice everything for power. In international politics he is a teddy bear, or rather Mrs. Merkel’s poodle. Many European leaders who voted for him probably yielded to Mrs. Merkel’s persuasion.

But Merkel’s support was not enough. There were two arguments floating in the media which were said to be raised in favour of Tusk’s candidacy, both strikingly false. The first is that Mr. Tusk will be ready to do something in  order to reform the EU which for some time has been acutely suffering from sclerosis. All those who advocate the reform, David Cameron for example, supported Tusk as their man. But they miscalculated. They mistakenly assumed that Tusk has some strong beliefs or principles – for instance, regarding the European Union – which he is ready to pursue. Well he does not, either as a shark in Polish politics, or as a teddy bear in international politics. Since the big guys in the EU do not want the reform, Tusk will certainly not challenge them. When opening the Polish presidency in the European Parliament, Tusk started his speech with the sentence: “We need more Europe in Europe”. This does not sound particularly reformist, does it?

The second argument was that at the time of the Ukrainian crisis Tusk – an East European and a former anti-communist activist – would most likely represent the hard line against Russian imperialism, to counterbalance the powerful influence of the doves from the West European countries. This, again, is something that cannot be corroborated by the facts. Until the Ukrainian crisis Tusk as the prime minister had represented the strongly pro-Russian stance. He had even flirted with Vladimir Putin to form a common front against the then President of Poland, the late Lech Kaczynski. He had bashed all Poles who warned against Russian imperialist politics and who said that Putin could not be trusted. A sudden change after the annexation of the Crimea was dictated solely by his knee-jerk reaction to side with the European mainstream. It can be expected that he, as the President of the Council, will continue to move with the tide. Any hope that he will launch a political initiative of his own – be it in European-Russian relations, or in the EU integration process – against the will of his powerful protectors is highly unlikely.

Of course, the role of the President of the Council should not be overrated. Herman van Rompuy did not make a difference; nor will Donald Tusk. And yet there is something depressing in the fact that the European leaders decided to choose for this position somebody who so miserably failed as a national politician and whose seven year rule has poisoned the public sphere in his own country and divided the society to the degree unknown since the imposition of the martial law by General Jaruzelski in 1981.

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http://rlegutko.pl/aktualnosci/tekst-ryszarda-legutki-o-donaldzie-tusku-dla-portalu-mos-maiorum,2334.html

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