Nobody embodies the EU’s elite-driven nature better than its incumbent president, Ursula von der Leyen. And no action of hers embodies its warped excesses better than her decision, in April 2021, to single-handedly sign off on a €35-billion deal for the purchase of 1.8 billion doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. According to one analysis, the price per dose she agreed was 15 times higher than the cost of production — meaning that the EU overpaid the vaccines by tens of billions of euros.
EU politics
META: Citizenwashing: What it is and how to spot it
“This is for the benefit of the citizens”, “We have consulted citizens and…”, “This is what citizens want.” The word “citizen” is regularly used by politicians and public authorities to justify their decisions. But sometimes […]
National Politics
Thomas Piketty: A Queen with no Lord?
With the death of Elizabeth II, it is tempting to talk about the immutability of British institutions, in contrast to France and its many revolutions and constitutions. In reality, things are more complex, and the […]
EU politics
Iain Macwhirter: The Catalans united can never be defeated
“What the Spanish state is trying to do is old fashioned, even a little quaint. In the age of liberal democracy, staging what is potentially a military takeover of a rebellious region seems anachronistic, almost […]
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