Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10013170
The war in Ukraine is “existential for our Europe and for France”, Mr Macron said in the interview on France 2 and TF1.
“Do you think that the Poles, the Lithuanians, the Estonians, the Romanians and the Bulgarians could remain at peace for a second [in the event of a Russian victory in Ukraine]?” he asked. “If Russia wins this war, Europe’s credibility would be reduced to zero.”
European elections are ongoing, and that’s definitely a move to tell to pro-European to not vote for “certain parties”.
You’re absolutely right that if we look at the material given, for once Germany is leading the “European defence”. And that realistically, moving “troops” to Ukraine will impact other front where french troops are fighting. So I am not sure which part of it is just word and whether it’ll change much the big picture. That said, I can see how even non combat soldier could be a drastic change. If you send military mechanics with the tanks you let Ukraine having more combat troops and avoid long retraining of support staff.
No-one cares about the European elections, the Parliament doesn’t even have the power to propose new laws.
Unfortunately you’re not wrong that many people don’t care 'bout the European election, on the other hand it means that there is a big intersection between the people who care about the European election and the ones who want to see more support for Urkaine, and for a political party it’s still an election with MEP and assistant positions to get, this is crucial to keep the party alive and prepare the post-Macron era.
However, even though the power balance in the EU is too much in favour of the council rather the parliament, there is tons of laws coming from the European level (GDPR is a big one, but recently the EP voted against a medical visit for the driver licence) so this election has a big weight
I can’t vote anyway, because I never voted back in my passport home country. Despite holding EU citizenship and living in the EU.
It sucks that voting rights aren’t just tied to paying taxes - the EU should really sort that out, so it functions more like a whole citizenship wherever you live, like the USA is.
