JUST LIKE THE GOOD OLD SOVIET DAYS
EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos strives to enforce "proper solidarity."
August 16, 2017
Bruce Bawer
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Flash forward to 2017. In June, the European Commission sues the governments of Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic for refusing to accept so-called migrants from the Middle East and north Africa who are currently working on their tans in Greece and Italy. The governments hold firm. On July 26, Moscow – sorry, Brussels – gives them an ultimatum: they have one month to snap into line. On the same day, an official at the Court of Justice of the European Union rules that the EC's migrant-relocation orders are legal. Well,
naturally they're legal: the EU itself makes the laws under which it operates. Just as the system of government in the good old Eastern bloc provided no peaceful way for the oppressed masses to question or check or challenge Moscow's power, so the eminentos in Brussels have defanged their own subject peoples, fobbing off on them a parliament that has no authority whatsoever to initiate legislation and that is effectively subordinate to the unelected, autocratic Politburo – sorry, European Commission.
There are good reasons, needless to say, why Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic would prefer not to follow the EC's directives on migrants. Just look at a map of where European jihadist attacks have occurred in recent years. There's a simple reason why one city after another in western Europe has been targeted while eastern Europe has been almost entirely spared. It's called border control. Unlike most of the technocrats who run Western Europe, most of the leaders of Eastern Europe have put the interests of their own people above those of unvetted – and unvettable – foreigners claiming to be refugees.
Ever heard of Dimitris Avramopoulos? Don't worry, nobody else has either. Outside of his own homeland, Greece, where he was mayor of Athens, nobody has ever voted for him for anything. But he's a powerful man, holding the august title of EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs, and Citizenship. On July 26, commenting on the disobedience of the duly elected Polish, Czech, and Hungarian governments, this Hellenic technocrat sounded for all the world like a Communist dictator – like Brezhnev trying to threaten and cajole Warsaw back into the fold. “There is still time,” said Avramopoulos darkly, “to change everything and come back to normality.”
Normality – a fine Kremlin-worthy euphemism for obedience, deference, docility. Avropoulos then engaged in a bit of apparatchik-style finger-wagging: noting that, on the migrant issue, most EU states – especially Sweden – have been showing “proper solidarity” and “making enormous efforts in a real European spirit,” he expressed “regret that other member states continue to show no solidarity and to ignore our repeated calls to participate in this common effort.”
Solidarity; European spirit; common effort – more cozy euphemisms for obedience. How do you say “Orwellian” in Greek?
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Just like Brezhnev, the EU insists that it respects national sovereignty. Obviously that's as much of a lie now as it was then. Like the Warsaw Pact, the EU is no voluntary association of “fraternal countries”; it's a budding dictatorship, a malevolent colossus, an ongoing exercise in the amassing of undemocratic power and the dissipation of freedom. It's also a shaky vessel that's taking on so many non-paying passengers that it's destined to sink. The Brexiters were right to vote to jump ship – let's hope that actually happens. And let's hope the Poles, Czechs, and Hungarians stick to their guns. The quicker the EU founders and the peoples of Europe regain their sovereignty, the better for them, and the better for the cause of freedom in the world.
Just Like the Good Old Soviet Days