International

The majority of MEPs voted today in favour of maintaining a proportion of the 73 seats freed up as a result of Brexit. Responding to the decision, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong said: ´It was a bizarre spectacle. The European Parliament always wants more. This was a chance to make savings, but the EP let it pass. According to the majority, 27 of the seats which will be vacated must be used for a redivision among the member states. So the Netherlands could get three more and go up to 29. That might seem attractive, but a more evenly-balanced division would be possible with fewer MEPS, too. With this decision the EP has revealed that it couldn't care less about what's going on outside its doors. Member states have been bullied for years by the European Union to cut spending, but the European Parliament just wants more and more. I can't imagine a wider gulf between the public and the EP.”

In 2014 for the first time debates were organised between candidates which European Political Parties had put forward for the post of president of the European Commission. “If you want to know what goes on inside the European Bubble, you have to repeat what was done in 2014 and have the candidates for Commission president, two of whom were then Juncker and Schulz, debate each other. Those debates were really boring, and hardly anyone watched them. That makes sense because most of the candidates were in the end in favour of a superstate in which the member states would become like states of a federal union. It's a pity that a majority in the EP wants to hold on to this circus. A true debate on the future of the EU should be conducted between national parties, which are closer to the people. As elected SP politicians we represent as forcefully as possible the 90% who have simply been left behind in recent years and who can't expect anything from Juncker and others who live inside the Brussels Bubble.”